Super Mario Worlds: Beyond the Kingdoms
by gonewriting
Summary: When a mysterious girl named Emmy kidnaps Luigi and the Mushroom kingdom's power stars, it is up to Mario and Peach to rescue them. Emmy claims that Mario kidnapped her parents, and is conspiring with Bowser.
1. A chance encounter

_Mario looked at the earth below him... It was all flying by so fast, there was the Mushroom Kingdom... and then in the next second it was gone, and he was crossing over the sea to a place he'd never seen before. It had to have been another world, far from his own. He could see a beach appear below him, and then forest of pine trees and then suddenly he stopped above a jungle, where, right in the middle was a clearing where jungle people had built huts. It looked like a tiny little happy village. Mario landed down on the ground in the middle of the village. No one seemed to notice him. _

_The people wore leaves and plants for clothing, and had different colored markings on their faces. _

_A scream came from the farthest side of village, bringing the plumber's attention elsewhere. The villager who screamed yelled out something, but Mario was too far away to make out any of the words. Trees from where the villager had come from began to crash to the ground. Villagers began to panic, taking their families and friends and any possesions they could carry. They were leaving their homes. An old man, who seemed almost oblivious to the chaso, emerged from one of the huts and walked quickly inside another. Mario followed him. _

_Inside the hut Mario saw a woman sitting on a poorly made wooden chair, holding a young girl of about six years old in her lap. A man stood in the corner, and watched his wife and daughter. _

_"Jena," the old man said, "it has finally come. You must give up the child. You know what will happen if you don't."_

_The woman began to cry, and her daughter hugged her. "Jena," the old man implored again. "It is for the safety of the tribe!" _

_Jena rose from her chair set her daughter on the ground. "You will be safe," she said. "You must go with the chief now. He will make sure you are safe."_

_"Mommy," the little girl insisted, holding on to her mother's leg. Her father stepped away from the corner. "You must listen to your mother." _

_A roar came from outside, and the chief then grabbed the child's hand and took her away. "We love you so much!" her parents called out to her. The little girl fought the chief, but they left and followed all the other fleeing villagers, leaving the girls parents behind. Suddenly, the world began to fade away..._

Mario woke up to the fragrant smell of breakfast. Pancakes and eggs. Luigi always made the best breakfasts. He jumped out of bed, quickly got dressed, and ran downstairs to see Luigi already eating breakfast.

"Morning, bro," Luigi greeted him, and Mario grabbed a plate of breakfast and sat down across from Luigi.

"We got a letter from Princess Peach this morning," Luigi said, shoving around his scrambled eggs. "Toadsworth delivered it himself this morning. She's invited us to go play tennis."

Mario nodded and then took a big bite of syrupy pancakes. "We should leave soon," he remarked. "It's almost eleven."

Luigi set down his fork and said, "That's because you got up late. That's not like you."

"I couldn't sleep last night," Mario said between bites. "I had the weirdest dream. And then I kept waking up and falling back asleep."

"What'd you dream?" Luigi asked.

Mario described his dream and how the villagers all seemed to abandon the girl's parents. "Weird dream," Luigi said, pushing around his eggs, not wanting to eat them. "You must've eaten something wierd last night," Luigi said, referring to what had seemed like the millions of wings Mario had devoured last night in a contest with Wario.

Mario threw a playful look at his younger brother. He picked up a pancake with his fork and pretended to throw it at him. Luigi ducked instinctively, and Mario burst into laughter. "You thought I was going to throw it?"

Luigi narrowed his eyes. "Well, you've done it before, it only figures you'd do it again."

The two plumbers then quickly finished their breakfast and set off towards the castle.

Halfway there, Luigi became paranoid. "Did you hear that?" he asked, looking around wildly through the trees.

"I don't hear anything," Mario said, ignoring him. "You always hear something. Nothing ever happens."

But this time there was a loud crack, and even Mario heard it.

"See!" Luigi pointed out, but Mario quickly quieted him. The two brothers huddled close together, prepared to fight anything that showed itself.

Suddenly, out of the corner of Mario's eyes, Luigi was pulled backwards by some invisible force. Mario blinked, and suddenly there was a bright golden glow around his brother, who was now suspended in the air.

"Mario!" Luigi yelled, frantically trying to kick himself out of the glowing bubble he was trapped in.

Mario ran up and punched the glowing bubble, but it was useless.

Suddenly a tall dark figure walked throw the trees, their hand held up to where Luigi was, as if they were holding Luigi captive. She revealed herself, and Mario noticed the bright red markings across her cheeks, and her brown outfit that seemed itself to come straight from the jungle. She looked like one of the tribal people from his dream.

The girl looked Mario up and down. "Mario bros, I presume?" she asked. "And I'm guessing the one I'm holding in the air is Luigi?"

Mario opened his mouth to say something, but the jungle girl beat him. "The name's Emmy," she said. "And I guess you and your brother were on your way to the Princess's castle? Of course, when are you not?"

Mario ran at her, but suddenly, from behind Emmy, came a power star. The power star came to a sudden stop in front of his face and spread out to a glowing sheet, creating a force field between them. Mario ran into it and fell to the ground.

"Bro!" Luigi called out.

"There's nothing he can do, Luigi," Emmy said. "He's not as strong as you."

Mario managed to get to his feet. "Let go of my brother!" he demanded.

Emmy sneered. "Why? He's stronger than you. I'd rather have him. That's what I never got about you two. Why brave and strong, but irrational Mario went after Bowser, when the cowardly, yet smarter Luigi could have done the job a thousand times better." She looked up at Luigi. "All he needs is a little encouragement, no?"

"Get me out of here, Mario!" Luigi said, becoming quite panicked.

"I'm afraid that's not possible, Luigi," Emmy said. "You'll be coming with me."

Emmy lowered her hand, and the force field between Emmy and Mario disappeared, and the power star returned to Emmy. Mario took this chance to attack and ran at Emmy, but before he could blink, he was thrown to the ground. Emmy had barely moved.

"You can't beat me, Mario," she said. "Luigi and I will be leaving now. We have a date with Bowser!"

At the mention of Bowser's name, both Luigi and Mario's eyes widened. "No!" they yelled simultaneously.

"Whose power stars?" Mario asked, as he watched his brother being taken away. Emmy turned around and faced him. She sneered again. "You might want to ask your friend Peach. She was kind enough to let me… borrow, them." She put up a force field around herself and Luigi with another power star—Luigi was still hovering in the air in his own bubble, though—and then faced Mario again. "If you wish," she began. "You can see your brother off?"

"It might be a trap!" Luigi screamed. "Don't do it Mario; I'll be fine. Go to the castle!"

Emmy didn't say anything except, "He's right, Mario. He'll be fine. I'll bet my life on that. As for it being a trap…"

Luigi nodded. "Go make sure everything is okay at the castle first. I can fend for myself. Go!"

"Why are you taking him?" Mario asked, hoping to gain more knowledge on what was going on exactly.

Emmy looked at Mario with a longing and sad stare. "Because, Mario. A long time ago, when I was little, you kidnapped my parents."

"What?" Luigi exclaimed. "Mario would never—"

"But he did!"

"I promise you, I didn't," Mario said.

Emmy said quickly, "Luigi and I are going to go have a chat with Bowser now. If you wish, you can end this whole thing and give me my parents right now."

Mario was at a loss for words.

"Well, then," Emmy said. "When you're ready, you can find me at Bowser's castle across the worlds. Next time I see you, you better have my parents with you. Now, are you going to see your brother off?"

"Don't do it, Mario!" Luigi said. "Please, Mario. It'll be worse if we're both captured. Go to the castle! I can look out for myself."

Mario looked at his younger brother and knew he was right. Luigi, surprisingly, could take care of himself. "I'll come back for you!" he said.

"We're off!" Emmy said, raising her eyebrows, and began to walk away with Luigi and the power stars.

"I love you, bro!" Mario called out, as he began to walk slowly towards the direction of the castle. He heard Luigi call out something else, but he was too far away to hear just what it was.

Mario managed to tear himself away from the scene and run quickly towards the castle.


	2. Bowser's new coconspirator

Mario kept a steady pace on his way towards the castle. As he passed through Toad Town he could hear toads calling out to him: "Run Mario!" they called out. "The Princess needs to see you!" This motivated Mario to run even faster, for the toads only called out to him if something had gone terribly wrong at the castle.

Mario didn't slow until he reached the front doors of the castle, where Peach was waiting anxiously outside.

"Mario!" Peach called, running towards him, Toadsworth walking slowly behind her. "The power stars are gone!" she explained. She looked over Mario's shoulder. "Where's Luigi? Is he coming?"

"It's a long story," Mario said in between breaths. The two then hurried back into the castle, along with Toadsworth, where Mario could sit down and relax. They sat down in the sitting room, facing each other, with Toadsworth sitting next to Peach.

Without even being asked, Mario began to explain what happened to Luigi. "And suddenly, he was just floating there, in this bubble formed from a power star! There was nothing I could do. She's taking him to Bowser, so I'm guessing he's planning something. What happened here?"

Peach began, "Well, it's simple, actually. Suddenly all the power stars started leaving the castle and floating over the hill. It happened very early this morning. It must have been Emmy." She hung her head in a tasteful fashion. "This couldn't be the work of Bowser. Even he can't make the power stars follow orders. No one can!"

"The weirdest thing is, though," Mario said, "is that Emmy said that I kidnapped her parents. I think that's why she took Luigi.

"That's odd," Peach said. "You never kidnap people!"

"I know," Mario said. "But the thing that seemed odd to me was that she was able to control the power stars so freely. And to make them listen to her orders!"

"But its not possible to control power stars that freely!" she exclaimed.

"Actually, it is," said Toadsworth solemnly. "There are very rare people, called Lotas. They can control the power stars with their minds, usually against the power stars' will. There aren't any in the Mushroom Kingdom, or even the Beanbean or Flower Kingdoms. They are from a place known to be 'across the worlds'. They are very powerful people. Deadly enemies and useful allies."

"Across the worlds?" Mario asked. "That's where Emmy said she was going to take Luigi! I have to go there to get him and the power stars back."

"I'm going too!" Peach said.

"It might be dangerous," Mario explained.

"They're my kingdom's power stars! Are you saying I won't be able to survive? I can do just fine out in the wilderness!"

"This is no simple task!" Toadsworth interrupted. "Across the worlds is exactly where it sounds. You have to cross through many foreign, and hostile, lands to get there. Master Mario, I will have to agree with the Princess on this one. It would be dangerous to go alone. However, I don't think that a princess should put herself in such danger. Perhaps Yoshi could travel with you?"

Mario opened his mouth to say something, but Peach beat him. "Just because I am a princess doesn't mean that I can't handle myself! Besides, I'll be safe. Mario will be with me. That's the best security I have." She glared at Toadsworth, who then hung his aging head and said, "As you wish, princess. I will handle the arrangements and get everything together."

The three looked at each other in understanding. Princess Peach was to travel across the worlds with Mario. "I will begin the preparations," Toadsworth said, and they left the room.

* * *

The force field around Emmy and Luigi disappeared once they arrived in the field. A small shuttle was sitting in the middle of the field, and with a tiny flick of a switch, Emmy had opened its hatch, she instructed the power star bubble carrying Luigi into the shuttle, and hastily closed the door. Inside it looked almost exactly like a house. There was a tiny kitchen area, bathroom, couch, and a bed, all centered around a tiny hallway that led from the door of the shuttle to There were also two cages, one small enough just to fit Luigi in, and then one big enough for the bed that was squished up against the wall. 

Emmy walked over and opened the door of the smaller cage, and the Luigi bubble drifted inside it, and popped, the power star returning to Emmy. She immediately closed the cage door, and walked over to a control panel in front where the shuttle was operated.

Luigi tried to cower in the corner of the cage, but it was so small he could barely move. He shuddered and prayed his brother was alright and looking for him.

"Where… a-are you t-t-taking m-m-me?" he asked.

She spun around on her swivel chair. "We're going to see Bowser, remember?" She looked hard at him. "You have nothing to be afraid of. I've flown one of these before. We'll survive. Besides we're just negotiating a deal with Bowser. I wouldn't _dare_ hand you over to him."

Luigi caught a hint of truth in her last sentence and relaxed slightly, but not enough to stop his shaking.

"Please hurry, Mario," he said under his breath. "I need your help."

* * *

Mario and Peach set off the next day, heading northwest by boat, where this 'across the worlds' place could be found. Toadsworth gave them a map that was only half-completed by two adventurous toads who had set out to 'across the worlds' a long time ago. They had only made it half-way, so Peach and Mario would have to figure out the rest of the way themselves. 

"You must take this with you also," Toadsworth said, handing them a power star. "It was the only one that Emmy didn't take. It should help you on your journey."

"What if Emmy finds us and takes it?" Peach asked.

"We have a specially made container to hold it." Toadsworth gave them a small silver container, and Mario put the power star in it. "Protect it with your life."

Mario carried all of their things in a backpack, and they set out towards the dock near the back of the castle.

"Remember," Toadsworth said, "there will be things there that you have never even heard of. You must go retrieve Luigi and the power stars as quickly as possible. Keep the Princess safe, Master Mario."

Mario nodded, and Mario, Peach, and the toads walked aboard the ship.

* * *

The flight had been long, and finally, they were landing. Luigi opened his eyes from his short nap, and realized he couldn't feel his legs. Were they still even attached? He wiggled his legs as much as the space would allow, just to reassure himself. He looked ahead towards the control panel as Emmy turned off the shuttle and walked over to the cage with a drape in her hand. 

"This is it," she told him. "Now, I _need_ you to be silent. Can you promise that?"

Luigi nodded.

"Good," she said, and she threw the drape over the cage, casting Luigi in darkness. He shuddered in fear and wondered where they were. Soon the cage was being lifted up and out of the shuttle, and Luigi listened to hear the clicking of Emmy's boots against stone floor. There was a gentle roar of what sounded like lava, and Luigi decided to calm his nerves by prentending he was sitting next to a waterfall, listening to the gentle breeze and flow of the water...

"Halt!" he heard, taking him away from his paradise. "By the order of Lord Bowser—"

"I'm here to strike a deal with him," he heard Emmy say. "I have power stars, and something else…"

There was a long moment of silence, and Luigi wondering if everything was going alright, if anything was going on.

"You may pass," said the voice from before, and the clicking of Emmy's boots continued. He felt the rhythm of the cage swinging from side to side: a turn here, stairs here, and more twists and turns. Suddenly, the walking stopped.

The gentle roar of lava turned to a monstrous echo, forcing Luigi to close his eyes. He knew they'd entered Bowser's throne room.

"What do you want?" Bowser asked defiantly.

Emmy set the cage down on the ground, and Luigi tried his best to contain himself.

"My name is Emmy," she began, and Luigi couldn't help but notice the fearful tone in her voice. "I am from the Macachi tribe in the Macachi jungle, and I have a deal to strike with you. You see, I have some of my own issues with Mario. He's your rival, correct? I want him sealed away in the center of the universe, and I've been told you know how to do this. We could work together, Bowser."

There was a grunt from Bowser, and then, "I can't do it, I don't have any power stars."

"But _I_ do, Bowser," Emmy said.

There was silence from Bowser for a moment, until finally he said, "What makes your offer so genuine?"

Suddenly the drape of the cage was lifted and Luigi's eyes locked with Bowser's.

Bowser instantly let out a haughty laugh. "Well, well, if it isn't the green 'stache! I never thought you'd live to see me again!" Luigi gave out a cry and covered his face with his cap, knowing that if anything bad happened, there was nothing he could do to protect himself.

"How's this," Emmy said, wanting to get down to business. "I will hold onto Luigi for you, all the while leaving a trail of breadcrumbs to your castle for Mario to follow, while you take the power stars and… do whatever it is you evil Koopa kings do. Prepare for Mario and whatnot."

Bowser smiled and nodded, then called for his minions to take the power stars. He beckoned for Emmy to give up the power stars, and Luigi looked up at her and noticed she seemed almost reluctant to let Bowser have the power stars. Her eyes never left Bowser's menacing gaze as she took out the container that contained the power stars and handed them over to Bowser's minions.

She looked down helplessly at Luigi and then threw the drape back over the cage. "No," Luigi muttered, but then remembered his promise to keep silent. Quickly Emmy rushed them out of the castle and back to the shuttle, where Emmy place the cage with Luigi down and took off the drape, then opened the cage.

"Please step in," she said, pointing to the much larger cage, the one with the bed in it. Luigi gladly stepped in and stretched, his legs sore.

"Sorry about that," Emmy said, and Luigi wondered whether she meant the flight length or about Bowser until she said, "I didn't think the flight would be that long."

Luigi didn't know if he should say 'that's okay', or try to find a way out. He decided to crash on the bed.

Emmy started up the shuttle and they took off into the air. As they passed over Bowser's castle, Luigi say Emmy stare violently down at it. And Luigi could've sworn he saw tears of frustration cloud Emmy's eyes.

"Are you okay?" he asked, then quickly wondering right after if he should've said anything at all.

"I'm fine," Emmy muttered low under her breath. "Your brother should be on his way soon," she said almost hopefully. "But as for now, we have a job to do."


	3. The Fuzzy Forest's Prophecy

The boat arrived early in the morning of the next day. Mario and Peach quickly got off, and the toads, out of their own fright, set sail as soon as Mario and the Princess touched land, waving madly and shouting good luck.

"They left quickly," Peach said, waving back. "This place really isn't _that _dangerous, is it?"

Mario sighed and stopped waving. He turned around to face the forest behind them. "There's only one way to find out." He reached behind him and pulled out the map that Toadsworth gave them. "This forest is called the Fuzzy Forest."

Peach stared wide-eyed at the wall of trees. "Mario…" she said timidly.

Oblivious, Mario continued, "Of course, only a toad would name a forest the _fuzzy_ forest."

"Mario!" the Princess screamed. "Look!"

Mario looked up to see a black spiked fuzzy bouncing towards them from the forest. "Well, that explains it," he said as he put the map back. Suddenly a giant roar erupted from the forest, sending shockwaves through the earth. The fuzzy that was drawing nearer paid no mind to the two, and jumped immediately into the ocean.

"Look!" Peach said, and Mario looked ahead to see more and more fuzzys jumping out of the forest. "They're everywhere!" Peach whipped out her parasol and held it in front of them. "Get behind it!" she yelled, and the two crouched down and took cover. Slowly the stream of fuzzys stopped, and Mario and Peach stood back up.

Another roar came from the forest, sounding closer and more dangerous. Trees suddenly began to fall, and Mario was reminded of his dream. Maybe this was the same creature. He shook his head no. It was in a jungle, not a forest!

"Mario," Peach said, "are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine," Mario said. "We need to keep moving before that thing finds us first."

The two then made their way off the beach and into the forest, never stopping to look at the shuttle that loomed overhead.

* * *

"We're here!" Emmy exclaimed with joy. She slowly lowered the shuttle onto the ground, while Luigi cringed in fear from the roaring that kept coming from the jungle.

The shuttle turned off and Emmy opened the cage. "You're coming with me. But you won't be able to run off, no matter what you try."

Luigi was a little reluctant to leave the cage, mostly for the fear of whatever was in the forest. "What was that noise?" he asked as he left the cage, rubbing his gloved hands together.

"Don't worry about it," Emmy said, releasing ten power stars from a metal container and letting them disappear behind her. "It's probably just the natural monster of this forest."

Luigi screamed and ran back into the cage. Emmy sighed and lifted him out of the cage with another power star bubble. "I really don't like using this on you, you know?" Emmy said. "Trust me, will you? I won't let you come to harm, and I'm sure you can fend for yourself, right? I remember you telling your brother that, actually."

"Okay!" Luigi said. "Let me out!" The bubble disappeared and he instantly dropped to the ground. "I don't like that…"

Emmy ignored him and opened the door to the shuttle. It was getting dark outside, and thunderclouds roared overhead. Luigi and Emmy exited the shuttle and Luigi cringed at the sky up above.

"That might account for some of the noise," Emmy said, and Luigi took his opportunity to make a break for it. He ran off, past the shuttle and into the trees. But there it was again. A golden bubble formed around him, and took him back to the shuttle.

"Luigi," Emmy said, taunting him. "Don't try and run off again, it would really make me angry. Besides, you have nowhere to go. Even if you did get away—and I know your brother is somewhere on this island—you would never be able to find him. Are we clear?"

Luigi nodded quickly, and the bubble popped, sending him down to the ground. He got up and brushed himself off, then rushed after Emmy, who had already started to walk away.

"Wait for me!" he yelled. "Where are we going?" he asked once he was beside her.

She responded, "You'll see. Just be patient."

They walked a long time, the forest floor crunching under their feet, and every noise making Luigi shudder. He didn't dare run off now. The sun was setting, and there was no way that Luigi wanted to be in a forest at night; even if Mario _was_ out there.

Once the sun was down, Emmy pulled out a power star and let its light shine the way. "Mamma mia," Luigi said under his breath. "I'm tired."

"We're almost there," Emmy said, not even bothering to slow down. Suddenly the trees cleared to reveal a dark and deep cave. Emmy hid the power star, casting darkness once again and causing Luigi to let out a small cry of fear. Emmy turned around and said harshly, "Quiet!"

Emmy let out a low call that sounded like a whale, and hid behind a tree, motioning for Luigi to do the same. Once they were both hidden, a small ray of light appeared at the back of the tunnel and slowly made its way forward. Luigi hid his eyes and wished for it all to go away.

"Hello?" a quiet voice asked, and Luigi opened his eyes again to see the shadows dancing around him like ghosts. "WAAAAH!" he cried and began to run away only to be trapped by the golden power star bubble. He turned around in his bubble to see Emmy jump in front of the glowing light from the cave.

"It's alright, Luigi," Emmy said. The bubble floated back safely behind Emmy and popped. Luigi cringed and hid behind Emmy.

Emmy turned around and dragged Luigi into sight of the creature from the cave. "Nothing's going to happen to you," Emmy said.

Luigi was so scared of the creature he couldn't move or even speak. The creature held up a bright lantern, and had torn brown clothing. Its head looked like a skull, and Luigi knew right away that it was a hobgoblin.

"It won't hurt us," Emmy comforted Luigi. "Will you?" she asked the cave creature this time.

"That depends," said the hobgoblin, inching forward. He waved his lantern at Emmy. "You are from the Macachi tribe?"

"Yes," Emmy answered. "I am their warrior. And this is Luigi. He's from the Mushroom Kingdom. We've come about the prophecy."

Luigi took it upon himself to seem brave and get up on his feet.

The hobgoblin tilted his head. "Mushroom Kingdom? I've heard of it… Never heard of a prophecy. Don't know what you're talking about. Now leave me alone before I decide to get rid of you myself." He turned around and walked back into his cave.

In an instant a power star had shot out from Emmy's hand and was now forming a golden bubble around the hobgoblin and his lantern; the same bubble Luigi had been punished with.

The golden bubble went away quickly and the hobgoblin pivoted around to look at Emmy. He let out a cackle. "You can control power stars!" he said, overjoyed. "Yes, the prophecy! Please, come inside."

Emmy followed the hobgoblin inside, and Luigi looked up at the sky, as a raindrop had fallen on his nose.

"Luigi!" he heard Emmy call out, and Luigi ran after them into the cave, just as the rain began to pour.

The three walked to the back of the cave, where a little humble abode had been made. The hobgoblin hung the lantern up on a wall, and Luigi and Emmy sat down at the small table.

"So, you've come about the prophecy," the hobgoblin said. "Well, I must say that the coming of a Lota does have something to do with it."

"Lota?" Luigi asked.

"I'll explain later," Emmy told him. "What about the Lota?"

The creature laughed. "I cannot remember the whole prophecy! There are tiny bits here and there, but the whole thing? No… The part with the Lota… ah, yes! 'The one who holds the stars shall bring the one from afar.' Or, something like that… Do you think it is the green one?"

"Luigi? No, I'm not sure. That's one of the reasons I came here. Is he in the prophecy?"

"Hmmm," the cave creature thought to himself. "There is mention of the man in green shall… something something fiend. I can't remember?"

Emmy narrowed her eyes in frustration. "Is there anything about a man in blue and red?"

The hobgoblin focused. "This is it in some form or another…'The man in red and blue will surely pass through, and the make the creature of old go cold. The hero will come when the prophecy unfolds.' Or something like that. Does that help?"

"Yes," Emmy said. She turned to Luigi. "This forest has a prophecy about Mario. You're in it too apparently." She turned back to the creature, this time in anger. "We would know what Luigi has to do if _you_ could remember!"

"Don't blame me!" the creature snapped back. "My memory is old! You Macachi are so impatient."

"Well, you do know what _your_ part of the prophecy is, right?"

"Of course! My job is to reward the hero when he defeats the beast…" Before he could finish, Emmy had her hand out and shimmering power star floating above it.

The hobgoblin's eyes—if he'd had any—would have gleamed. "Shimmering gold for the hero of told!" he exclaimed. "It is also in the prophecy!"

"Yes," Emmy said coolly. "I had a feeling of that. Take it." The creature gladly took the power star. "Give it to Mario once he defeats the creature in the prophecy. He's wearing blue overalls and a red shirt and cap with an 'M' on it. He kind of looks like Luigi here."

The hobgoblin looked at Luigi, whose eyelids were beginning to droop. "Yes, okay."

"Remember, I am a Lota. I will take that power star back if you don't give it to him." The hobgoblin noticed, and Emmy looked over to see that Luigi was asleep, his head on the table.

"You can stay here if you want for the night," the creature said. "He looks tired."

"Thank you," Emmy said. "One more question. What is that thing that keeps roaring in the forest?"

The hobgoblin replied, "No one who's seen it has lived to tell anyone."

Emmy nodded solemnly, and she then situated herself on the floor. The hobgoblin then took his lantern and left the cave and the two sleeping travelers.


	4. Coin Trail Creatures

**Disclaimer: All characters and monsters in this story, with the exception of Emmy, are the property of Nintendo. **

**I hope you enjoy! Please read and review!**

* * *

Mario got up to see Peach gone. He looked around and saw no sight of the princess. He instantly panicked. "Peach!" he called out. "Over here!" she called out, and emerged from the forest and walked over to Mario, who was still on the beach. She had some berries in her hand. 

"I found these in the forest! The book that Toadsworth gave us about edible foods turned out to be handy."

Mario grabbed some of the berries and the two sat down. "Toadsworth gave us a book?" Mario asked.

"Yes, and some other things. Look, these are—" Peach was interrupted by the deafening roar that once again came from the forest.

"Momma mia!" Mario exclaimed. The earthquake stopped shortly after the roaring. Mario and Peach then quickly finished their food and gathered up their things.

"We need to find out what that is!" Mario said. "Let's a-go!"

So the two travelers then made their way into the forest, where Peach immediately pointed out a trail of coins.

"That's odd," Mario said, rubbing his chin. "We should follow alongside it just in case it's a trap."

Mario and Peach got a safe distance away from the coins, and Peach took out her umbrella, Perry, just in case things got bad.

The coins went down a path through the forest, and suddenly, another surge of fuzzys came again, same as what had happened on the beach. While Mario and Peach were crouched behind Perry, Mario said, "We must be getting closer to whatever that beast is."

Once the fuzzys stopped, another tremendous roar shook the forest, and Mario heard a distinct scream that was unmistakably his brother's.

"Luigi!" he called out, and ran ahead, leaving Princess Peach to call after him. Mario ran out onto the path of coins without thinking, and from the trees came a dog-like creature that attached itself to Mario and dragged him down to the floor.

"Mario!" Peach called out, and immediately ran over to the dog-creature, hitting it repeatedly with the end of her umbrella. Eventually the dog let out a whimper and ran off.

Mario got up and looked at Peach in astonishment.

"What?" she replied. "I told you I can fight!"

Mario smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "I could have sworn I heard Luigi. Did you hear him?"

Peach shook her head no. "I'm sorry Mario," she said, trying to comfort him. "I'm sure he's okay. He went through a whole mansion of ghosts on his own! I'm sure he can get through this."

Poor Mario couldn't come to tell Peach that what was really on his mind were the words Emmy had said.

_That's what I never got about you two. Why brave and strong, but irrational Mario went after Bowser, when the cowardly, yet smarter Luigi could have done the job a thousand times better..._

_

* * *

A little earlier…_

Luigi woke up on the floor. He sat up and held his head. Where was he? He looked around and noticed it was dark everywhere, with only a small stream of light peering through rock. He looked around the room he was in, and saw Emmy staring at him wide-eyed. He jumped.

"Morning, Luigi," Emmy said. "The hobgoblin's gone who-knows-where, so we should leave before he gets back. They're hospitality runs short pretty quickly." She began to walk out of the cave. Luigi stayed where he was.

She turned around and faced him. "Well, are you coming or what?"

Luigi broke out of his trance and jumped up, running after Emmy. "So, what are we doing today?"

She turned around so quickly that Luigi almost fell over to avoid hitting her.

"Why would I tell you?" she spat back, and then continued walking.

Luigi clenched his teeth and murmured, "I was just asking."

They exited the cave into the brilliance of pure sunlight, the ground still a little wet after last night's storm. Emmy took a while to stop and stretch.

Luigi walked a little farther ahead, thought Emmy kept a sharp eye on him, and noticed a trail of coins throughout the forest. "Look!" he called out to Emmy, and she came running. "Did you do that?"

She shook her head. "I wouldn't go near that trail though if I were you. C'mon, let's see where it leads to. It looks like it started at the beach…"

So the two set off along the side of the trail, staying a safe distance from it. Suddenly they stopped, and Luigi figured out why. Five koopas were setting the coins out along a distinct trail, all the while laughing and talking amongst themselves.

Emmy decided to show herself to the koopas by jumping out on the trail, but she was suddenly attacked by a vicious dog-like creature. Luigi and the koopas stared in horror as Emmy struggled to gain control of a power star and use it. The koopas looked on with eager smiles.

Luigi quickly thought in his mind… run away, or help?

Mustering up his strength and courage, Luigi jumped out onto the trail and jumped on and punched the creature until it ran away whining.

Luigi panted, and noticed Emmy was looking at him strange. "You…" she began. "You saved me."

Luigi felt proud of himself, and he swelled up with pride. Unfortunately that also included loss of speaking.

"Hey, green 'stache!" one of the koopas yelled out. "You best be leaving before we hurt you!"

Luigi furrowed his brows at them. He could take on koopas any day.

"Do you even know who you're dealing with?" Emmy asked, getting up and brushing off dirt from her clothes. "I'm Emmy, and in case Bowser hasn't told you yet, I'm on your side. Luigi here is my captive."

Two of the koopas started bursting with laughter at Luigi being captured, while the other three looked terrified of what Emmy might do to them.

"Luigi! Ha! I knew he'd never last! He's such a brainless coward!"

Luigi's pride instantly went away and was replaced with shame. Emmy saw this and whipped out a power star, putting all five koopas in a bubble. "He had no choice!" she told them. "Let me see you break free of this!"

The koopas tried, and failed. Luigi stared on at Emmy. She was… standing up for him? No one but Mario and Peach ever did that for him.

Emmy eventually released the power star's hold, and the koopas dropped to the ground. "Now why are you setting this trail?"

"King Bowser told us that we should lead Mario to the beast in the forest!" the koopas said, still setting coins down. "Besides, those dog-creatures love the coins for some reason!"

Emmy looked down the trail of coins, and then said to the koopas, "Keep doing what you're doing. We'll be on our way." Emmy and Luigi decided to go around the half-finished trail of coins and back to the shuttle.

Luigi stiffened when, close to the trail of coins, a roar emerged from deep inside the forest, and another dog-creature leapt out and attacked him. He got a better look at its massive teeth and gleaming eyes before it attacked him. "Oh no!" he yelled out in fear, just as the dog latched on to him. A bright flash of gold whizzed past his face. He looked over to see the dog-creature lying on its side, and a power star staying obediently near Emmy's hand.

There was another noise after this, distant, that sounded like Mario. "Mario!" Luigi yelled, but Emmy stopped him with a force field, but a weak one.

"Luigi," she said, sounding exhausted, "we need to leave. I'm sure your brother is fine."

Luigi listened harder, ignoring Emmy, and heard only silence. He put his hands on the force field and noticed how weak it was. He could break through it…

"Please, Luigi," Emmy begged. "We need to go. The prophecy will be fulfilled. Your brother will be fine. Please…"

Luigi took his hands off the force field and turned back to Emmy, who looked tired. "I guess you're right," he said.

Emmy released the force field and said, "You have a lot of trust in you, don't you?" She was breathing fast.

"Are you okay?" Luigi asked her.

"I'm fine," Emmy said. "It takes a lot for me to do that, though," she said, pointing to the dog-creature that was still knocked out. Luigi, still a little out of the loop, walked with Emmy back towards the shuttle.

* * *

**I know I'm not putting much information about Mario and Peach in here, but Luigi's on the inside of the whole operation, so he witnesses a lot more. **


	5. A Lota and two Power Stars

**Okay, so my spacebar just broke recently, and sometimes doesn't work. If there are some spots where there aren't spaces between words, just let me know and I'll try and fix it. Here's the fifth chapter in the story, and in it we learn a little more about Emmy.**

**Oh, and also, I will only be able to update on the weekends (maybe during the week), due to my school wanting to torture me with an overwhelming amount of homework.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

By the late afternoon, Mario had caught sight of something shimmering up in the top of the tallest tree that was on the west side of the forest. "Look!" he said, pointing up towards the top of the tree.

"There's a power star up there!" Peach exclaimed, using her parasol to block the sun. "Mario, can you climb up there?"

Mario rolled up his sleeves and grabbed for the first branch of the tall tree. He swung himself up and began to climb higher, until Peach called out to him in fright. "Mario! Watch out!"

Mario swung his head over to his right to see a flying koopa coming straight towards him. Mario took a leap of faith and jumped from his high perch on the tree, landing on the koopa's back. The koopa's wings flailed in vain, but it could not carry the weight, so the two went crashing down to the ground.

Peach ran over to where they had fallen, her umbrella already closed and above her head. The koopa was held down by Mario, and then quickly yelled, "Alright! I surrender! Just please… spare me!"

Mario asked, "What are Bowser's plans?"

"I don't know!" the koopa immediately replied. "Bowser doesn't let us in on—"

Mario raised his fist. "Alright! Bowser has paired up with this Macachi tribe girl. Emmy, I think her name is. Anyways, she gave Bowser a whole bunch of power stars. That's it!"

"What about Luigi? What about my brother?"

The koopa looked at him in confusion. "Luigi? What does he have to do with this?"

Mario said between clenched teeth, "Emmy kidnapped my brother, and I want to know where he is, NOW!"

The koopa hid himself inside his shell. "Mario!" Peach said, running over to him. "He said he doesn't know. Maybe Bowser doesn't know Emmy has Luigi…"

"So what?" Mario said back angrily, releasing the koopa who took the opportunity to run away. "My brother is the only thing that matters to me right now! What if he's in the middle of nowhere, with no food? What if he's gone!"

Mario broke down into tears, and Peach crouched down beside him, placing her hand on his shoulder. "Mario… I know you're brother is important. He's more important than the power stars. Even to me. We won't give up, and we'll find Luigi, wherever he is."

"Luigi, huh?" came a shrill voice from the trees. Mario got up and stood ready to fight. "Who was that?" he asked.

From the trees stepped a short little… hobgoblin. "You must be Mario," the creature said, standing in the shade, his lantern burning even though night had many hours before it had to come. "I've met your brother. No, please, I am not your enemy, relax a bit. Your brother is safe and sound, I promise you. He was with Emmy, when she came to talk to me. I am here to help you."

"If you helped Emmy, then why would you help us?" Peach asked.

The hobgoblin let out a short laugh. "All things are connected. I'm not sure if you've noticed, but there is a beast that torments this forest. No one who's seen it has lived, and only recently has it been here. The locals are losing their homes because of this beast. Now I must tell you, there are two golds on top of the tree. Retrieve them and then come find me. My cave will have a lantern outside of it." And without waiting a second longer, the hobgoblin walked away.

"What was that about?" Peach asked out loud.

Mario shrugged, but knew that one thing was true. There were two power stars on top of the tree. He began to climb.

He reached the first branch easily, and quickly returned to the spot he'd been at before the koopa had attacked him. Mario knew that if the taller and lankier Luigi had been around, he would have been more able to climb the tree than short and fat Mario. Mario jumped up to the next branch, and hung from it. He began to swing, then, when gained the right amount of momentum, he leaped into the air, and landed perfectly on the next branch.

* * *

Emmy was more tired than Luigi when they reached the shuttle. Without being told, Luigi climbed into the cage and sat down.

Emmy sat down in her chair situated in front of the control desk and rubbed her forehead. In silence, Luigi once again tried to escape from the shuttle, taking advantage of Emmy's being lost in thought.

The shuttle door wouldn't open, and it took Luigi a quick minute to figure out that it was locked.

"You want to know what a Lota is?" Emmy asked, not even looking at Luigi, but swiveled around her chair so she was at least facing him. "It's someone who can control the power stars freely with their mind. I'm one of them. We're very rare people, but there is only so much we can do. I have the ability to put you in a glowing bubble, and I have the ability to create force fields. The one thing that is very hard for me to do is to attack others. Only if I have a good number of stars at my disposal can I attack others for a long time. When we were out in the forest, and that dog attacked you, I had to use that power to attack. I only had five stars then. There are fifty in this shuttle. So, as you can see, I need a lot to use that power."

Luigi said, "You wasted your energy to save my life?"

"Of course! A good kidnapper never lets their hostage go," Emmy said, showing a sly smile. "As for the prophecy, I gather you're still confused about that?"

Luigi nodded. "What does it have to do with my brother?"

"A lot," Emmy responded. "As you can obviously tell, this forest has recently been plagued by some great beast. A prophecy was made a long time ago about the coming of the beast, who would bring the hero to destroy it, and who the hero would be. Your brother is the hero, and I'm the one who brought him. It's really not that complicated. You're in the prophecy too, but that hobgoblin we talked to wasn't must help as to what your part was."

Luigi sighed. Of course his brother was the hero. When was he not? He rolled his eyes and went back to the cage.

"I'm sensing some frustration with your brother?" Emmy asked, searching Luigi's mind for something to pick. "Like I said before, I always thought you were the smarter one…"

"Stop playing mind games with me!" Luigi said, turning his back on Emmy.

Emmy turned her attention to the front of the shuttle. "You don't have to stay in the cage if you don't want to. Besides, we haven't eaten since last night and it's already past noon. We should probably get around to that."

Luigi stayed inside his cage anyway, and watched from the corners of his eyes as Emmy jumped out of her seat and walked over to the measly kitchen area, pulling out utensils and ingredients.

He watched as she promptly ruined a fettuccine Alfredo meal. He closed and let his nose pick out the fragrances of warm pasta…. and the smell of fire. Fire? Luigi opened his eyes and watched as Emmy screamed as the pot suddenly burst into flames before her eyes. Luigi, the door of his cage still being left open, ran over and turned the stove off, tossing the ruined noodles under a stream of cool water to cool them off before tossing them.

"You're supposed to use water when you cook noodles," he informed her. "Let me make something else."

Emmy stepped back as Luigi raided the cabinets, looking for ingredients to put together a delicious meal of lasagna. He found sauce, cheese and then began boiling water for the noodles. She slumped down in the chair in front of the control desk.

"Who cooks between the two of you?" Emmy asked, once Luigi had gotten control of the kitchen.

"I do, mostly," Luigi said. "Mario's not too good in the kitchen. Besides, I make the better lasagna. He just won't admit it." Luigi remembered back to the time when his older brother had taught him how to cook. Why couldn't everything be so simple again?

A while later, once the lasagna was almost ready for the oven, one of the monitors on the control panel began to flicker. Emmy turned her attention to it and positioned herself in front of the screen so Luigi couldn't see.

"What?" Emmy demanded.

"How are things going?" Luigi heard Bowser say.

Emmy looked at Luigi and then the lasagna, which translated to Luigi as 'keep cooking'. She began to speak quietly so Luigi couldn't hear.

Luigi put down the last of the sauce on the lasagna. He placed it in the oven and set the timer, then carefully walked closer to the control panel, ducking down behind Emmy's chair.

"Your minions must have bad vision," Emmy said. "I was clearly holding a power star controlling device in my hand."

Bowser let out a displeased grunt.

"I took it from your castle as I was leaving."

"Very well," he heard Bowser say. "Keep it up or I'll have to go and find Mario myself!" Then there was a click, and the screen turned off.

Emmy whirled around on her chair and looked down at Luigi. "You are very loud," she said.

Luigi quickly processed what he'd just heard. "Bowser doesn't know you're a Lota," he said, astonished.

"You _are_ smart. But why should he know?" she said. "It's not like it's important."

"Why wouldn't it be important!? You can control power stars!" Luigi could sense that his words had sent off a spark in Emmy's head. Something important was beginning to gnaw away at her mind.

Emmy turned her attention away from Luigi, staring at nothing. "Is the lasagna ready?" she asked.

Luigi narrowed his eyes, and stared at Emmy, who seemed lost and confused for a moment. Luigi decided to give it up and went back to the kitchen.


	6. Connections

**Okay, so this chapter is _really _short, sorry about that. But the next chapter is really long, so I think that makes up for it. Also this chapter does not involve Emmy and Luigi :( But I will try to get the next chapter up soon (which has a very intense battle scene)!**

* * *

The sun was slowly sinking into the earth when Mario jumped down from the lowest tree branch, two power stars in his hands. He looked at the tree to see Peach asleep against the tree. He put the two stars in the container they'd received from Toadsworth, and then gently shook Peach to wake her up.

She opened her sleepy eyes and looked at Mario. "Did you get the power stars?" she asked, yawning.

Mario nodded. "Yes, now we need to get out of here. This isn't the best place to make camp."

The two trotted off from the tree and began searching around for a clearing for camp, until Peach remembered something. "Wait!" she said, grabbing Mario's arm. "What about that hobgoblin! He told us that after we got those two power stars we should go see him."

Mario looked up at Peach. "You trust him?" he asked. "Hobgoblins can be very dangerous, you know…"

"We can handle it! Besides, he said he'd seen Luigi and Emmy. We need to go talk to him and see if he knows where they are!"

At the mention of his brother, Mario couldn't help but say yes. They gave up their search for a campsite, and then, as the sun began to set, they could distinguish the glow of a distant burning lantern, and made their way slowly towards, until they reach the coin trail set down the previous day.

What was worse than knowing the fact that they would have to go around the trail, or what they saw on the trail, besides the coins, they didn't know.

"Look!" Mario half-whispered and the two peered carefully out onto the trail. There were three dog-like creatures from before, eating the coins. They looked less vicious than before, and, now that they could see them more closely, had hunched backs like hyenas, short snouts, and small eyes that looked almost non-threatening.

The creatures continued to eat as the light up ahead was partially blocked out, then began to move closer. Mario and Peach ducked behind a shrub until Mario decided to look up; only to see that it was the hobgoblin carrying his lantern and a slab of raw meat.

The creatures perked up their heads and ears, then immediately began to challenge the cave creature for the meat. "Take it!" the hobgoblin said, then threw the meat farther away down the coin trail. The dogs all ran after it, competing against each other for the food.

"Hurry!" the hobgoblin said. "Better for those kijas decide they'd rather eat you." The hobgoblin began to walk away back towards his cave, and Mario and Peach had no choice but to dash across the coin trail and follow after the odd creature.

He remained silent as they traveled into the depths of the cave, while Mario and the princess exchanged worried glances. They entered into the hollowed out end of the tunnel, where Emmy and Luigi had been only a day before.

"Sit," the hobgoblin said simply, hanging his lantern up on the wall.

Mario and Peach both sat down in the chairs, slightly exhausted.

"They are called kijas," the hobgoblin said, sitting down with them at the dining table. "Those dog-looking creatures. They have been eating whatever they can get their teeth on. They usually eat fuzzys, but ever since the beast came the fuzzys have scattered, leaving the kijas with no food." He let out a shrill noise that seemed to be a laugh. "And now they are eating coins! Such money put to waste…"

"Why did you bring us here?" Peach asked. "We got those two power stars off the tree."

"Oh, yes," the hobgoblin said. "Very good. I brought you here so that I could tell you about the prophecy. 'The man in red and blue will surely pass through, and the make the creature of old go cold.' You are the man in red and blue, Mario," the hobgoblin seemed to sneer.

"I'm confused," Mario complained.

"There is an old prophecy about this forest. Many, actually. One of them is about the creature that now plagues this forest. One that involves Emmy, Luigi, and you, Mario."

"Luigi!"

"Yes, all things are connected."

"You've told us that before," Peach said.

"Because it's true! 'The one who holds the stars shall bring the one from afar. The man in green shall… something, something fiend. And then the man in red and blue shall surely pass through, and make the creature of old go cold.' You are meant to kill the beast, Mario! The beast who dwells at the end of the coin trails. Make sure you remember that. I will help you destroy the beast."

"How?"

"I can not tell you until you defeat the beast," the hobgoblin said, causing Mario to roll his eyes in frustration. "But there is one thing you must know. Its weakness is its front right foot. You must hurt his foot with this…" The hobgoblin promptly got up and went to a chest tucked away in the corner. He opened it up and pulled out a gleaming silver hammer. "I found this a while back. It's a rather long story how, but it's mentioned in the prophecy. I think that it is meant for you."

Mario, who had risen from his chair, took the lightweight hammer in his hand, and swung it through the air, testing its power.

Peach was staring conspicuously at the creature now. "Didn't you say that no one knows what the beast looks like, and that anyone who's seen it has never survived? How do you know this about its foot?"

The hobgoblin then quickly recited, "Front and right the hero swings with might. It's all in the prophecy. We hobgoblins read very deep into what we hear. And also, you are welcome to stay here and sleep."

Mario then looked closely at the hammer and put it away in his pack. "We would prefer to sleep somewhere else," he said, still a little untrustworthy of the hobgoblin.

"Mario!" the princess protested. "He's being nice, we should stay here."

"I don't mind," the hobgoblin. "Either way is fine with me."

"This could be a trap, princess, please, I don't want to put you in danger."

Peach folded her arms, but she felt safe with Mario, and he was usually right. She rose up out of her seat. "Fine, we'll go sleep in a tent."

The hobgoblin led them out of the cave, and Mario and Peach went back to their former sleeping ground, and quickly fell asleep.


	7. The monster in the meadow

**Here's the super long chapter! Major Luigi angst in this one, so Luigi fans will absolutely love this one!**

**I'll try and draw a map of where everything is in the forest, mainly because I think it helps me in the story. Once I have that finished I'll put the link up on my profile. ****Also, during intense scenes I like to switch back and forth from points of view pretty quickly, so just keep in mind that everything is pretty much happening simultaneously. **

* * *

When Luigi woke up, he saw that Emmy was dressed in a different outfit: a loose blue t-shirt and grey cutoff sweatpants. The red marks from her cheeks were gone, and her hair had been tied back in pony tail. Luigi looked at her differently, and she noticed. 

Emmy looked down at her attire. "I thought it was more appropriate," she said. "Besides, I'm not in the jungle anymore; I don't need my tribal markings on my face."

"You come from a tribe?" Luigi asked, crawling out of bed, and rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

Emmy nodded. "I'm part of the Macachi tribe in the Macachi valley. I would explain it to you, but its kind of a complex system. We're very defensive about our territory. Basically we have a single warrior, who faces off against anyone who wants to cross through our valley or visit. It's a ritual, so to speak. Beat the warrior and you get to pass through. Be defeated and you have to walk around the valley."

Luigi asked, "Were you their warrior?"

Emmy nodded again and walked over to the kitchen to start cooking, but then looked at Luigi. "Uh… do you want to cook?"

Luigi nodded enthusiastically, and then began to prepare breakfast.

* * *

Peach and Mario had gotten an early start on the day, and after an hour of wandering around, they walked over to where the hobgoblin's cave was to see if he was there. 

He was not.

"What do we do now?" Princess Peach asked as they left the cave.

Mario sighed. "Well, the hobgoblin did say that we needed to go destroy the creature. I guess…"

Peach nodded, and even though she didn't want to, she knew that he was right. "I guess we'll follow the coin trail, then."

Staying a ways away from the coin trail while still being able to follow it, the two travelers made their way onward in the foreign land.

* * *

Once the two had finished eating and Luigi began to do the dishes, Emmy went over to the control panel, and lifted the shuttle up off the ground and into the air. 

"I have a feeling that Mario knows about the beast by know," she said. "We're going to go find where it lives and see if we can watch him fight it from up here."

Luigi gaped at what Emmy said, and dropped a plate to the ground, causing it to shatter at his feet.

Emmy looked at the plate, her face emotionless. "You dropped a plate," she said to bring Luigi out of his state of shock.

Luigi left the shattered plate on the floor and said, "We're going to watch Mario fight a giant beast?!"

Emmy nodded. "The prophecy said your brother was going to destroy the creature! Why are you so concerned?"

Luigi ringed the wet towel in his hands. "I have a right to be concerned about my brother! Wouldn't you be concerned if someone you cared about was going to go fight a giant beast in a forest they've never been too?"

Emmy looked Luigi in the eyes and slowly nodded. "I'm sorry," she said. "If we witness the fight, then there might be a clue as to what your part of the prophecy is."

Luigi knelt down to pick up the broken plate shards and asked, "Why are you so determined to make sure this prophecy happens?"

Emmy swiveled back and forth in her chair. "Because it's my duty. I'm part of the prophecy too."

Luigi still couldn't understand Emmy. Wasn't she his enemy? Why was she trying to act as friends?

He turned off the water and put the towel in the sink, as his head was thrown to the ground by a sudden lurch from the shuttle.

"Sorry!" Emmy said, letting out a giggle of embarrassment. "Wasn't paying attention!" The shuttle lurched forward again, and set off over the forest.

* * *

"Look!" Peach said, pointing up into the sky. A gleaming silver shuttle was flying up ahead, towards the same direction as them. "What is that?" Without waiting for an answer, she yelled out, "It's going the same direction as us. We need to hurry!" 

Peach ran off without Mario, who had to run to keep up. They kept alongside the coin trail, as it curved up a hill, then back down, leading them to a trickling stream. The coin trail crossed the stream, so the two followed it, and then ran straight into a green grassy meadow.

They smiled with joy as they looked out at the abundance of colorful flowers and the open sky up above.

"It's so beautiful!" exclaimed Peach, running over to a bed of yellow crocuses.

Mario walked over and picked a flower to smell it, but suddenly the ground began to shake, yet this time there was no roar to accompany it. The ground continued to shake, and out of the ground in the middle of the hilly meadow came a giant kija, four times the size of a regular one.

Mario instinctively pulled out his hammer, and tossed aside the pack he had been carrying as the kija drew closer. "Peach, you need to get out of here!" he yelled. Peach, having noticed that, was already on the far edge of the meadow.

The kija let out a deafening roar that sounded like a lion, despite the creature's dog-like form. Its sleek golden body seemed to float as it made its way towards Mario. It began to center its attention on Mario, and circle him like a vulture would circle its meal.

The dance began.

The kija snapped it's knife-sharp teeth at Mario, who then held his hammer up high, threatening to bring it down. The kija continued its circular motion, every once in a while lunging in at Mario—who still didn't know just how to defeat it just yet—and then pulling back. Mario heard the slightest noise above him, and looked up to see a hovering shuttle.

The kija took its opportunity to attack.

* * *

"Luigi!" Emmy said. "The creature! Its… its a… what is it?" 

Luigi ran up to the front of the shuttle, the control panel, where the only windows in the shuttle were located, besides the one next to Emmy's bed.

Luigi looked just in time to see Mario look up, and the giant dog-creature lunge at his brother, fangs glaring in the sunlight.

"Mario!" Luigi yelled to no one, and the knowledge that there was no way for him to help his brother was the worst torture of all.

* * *

The creature threw Mario down to the ground, and then leaped off, ready to spring back for another attack. But the kija leaped only to meet Mario's hammer. 

Mario smiled in satisfaction as the kija was thrown to the ground, but his smile quickly faded as the kija leapt at him again, and slashed his arm, tearing through fabric and skin. Mario yelled in pain, and Peach subsequently gasped. The hammer fell to the ground and the kija attacked Mario from behind, scratching his back, and causing Mario to fall to the ground.

The kija continued to attack with such ferocity that Mario found it hard to get up or even defend himself.

_Front and right the hero swings with might…_

Mario soon realized the hobgoblin had lied to him. There was nothing wrong with the kija's front right foot. The kija had been attacking him with it the whole time. In fact, it seemed terribly strong…

* * *

Emmy and Luigi both stared down in sheer terror. "The prophecy…" Emmy said. "It's… it's not coming true…" 

Luigi looked down at the control panel at the various knobs and buttons. "How do you make this thing work?" he asked. Emmy didn't respond, but only continued to stare in horror at the battle taking place below. "Luigi… what are we going to do? The prophecy isn't coming true!"

Luigi decided to control the shuttle himself, and grabbed the main wheel, pulling it up towards him. The shuttle shook, falling slightly downwards and breaking Emmy out of her spell.

"What are you doing?" she yelled at Luigi, grabbing the wheel. "You're going to kill us!"

"I need to get down there and save my brother!" Luigi yelled back at her, still holding on to the wheel.

"Your brother will be just fine! The prophecy said Mario would destroy the beast, so that's _exactly_ what is going to happen!"

"What if he isn't? I'm part of the prophecy too, remember? So I need you to let me out of this shuttle, now!"

* * *

Mario stammered to his feet as the giant kija started to circle him again. Mario picked up the hammer, mustering up all the strength he could find, and watched as the creature prepared to lunge again. Mario swung his hammer upwards and felt his tired arm shake with the impact. He had hit the kija under the chin, and watched as it fell slightly backwards. 

The kija retreated back to its circling of Mario, which gave Mario some time to regain his strength. But the kija soon attacked him again, and Mario hadn't been quite ready, as he was knocked to the ground, knocking the wind out of him and causing his vision to fade.

The kija stood next to Mario and let out a cry of victory. Mario looked up at the kija, his face bruised and bleeding, his right eye swelling up, no longer wanting to remain visible.

* * *

"You have to let me out of this shuttle!" Luigi demanded, having given up on trying to fly the shuttle and was now pacing uncomfortably around the shuttle. 

"No," Emmy replied again quickly. "We must rely on the prophecy." Her voice sounded blank and distant, as if she was receding into herself.

Luigi decided it was no use, and turned to another idea. He had never tried it in a closed space as small as the shuttle; the last time he'd done it was on a soccer field, and that had been a long time ago. He decided to go for it anyway, as it was his only hope. He walked over to the shuttle window and looked down at the battle below. _Please work…_ he thought.

Luigi closed his eyes as he let his body relax. He searched the air for the energy he needed, and he found it quite easily, as the shuttle ran on the element. Feeling the energy ball up in his hands, he opened his eyes, feeling pure electricity running through his veins. He tried to pinpoint the best place on the creature to attack.

He focused the energy once again, and praying for a miracle, he let lose his electricity on the beast.

* * *

Mario picked up his hammer once again, ready to hit the kija in the head, all the while holding onto one tiny thread of hope; the hope that somehow the beast would falter and expose some weak point that Mario could attack. 

The kija glared at Mario and prepared to attack.

And in that instant, green lightening rained from the sky all around the kija, who cried out in terror. The onslaught was gone as soon as it had appeared, and the kija was now limping around painfully, holding up its front right foot.

Mario smiled as he realized this turn of events, and let his hammer fly down upon the beast's injured foot.

The kija yowled in pain and leapt back. Mario, finding renewed strength, hit the kija over the head with a terrifying blast, and the beast slowly fell to the ground, silent.

Mario paused and waited for the kija to get back up. After a few minutes, when the giant kija had still not stirred, Mario fell to the ground, exhausted.

"Mario!" Peach called out, running out from her hiding spot. She ran over to where he lay and held his head in her hands. She examined his bruises and cuts, then ran over to where Mario had abandoned the pack. After searching around in it, she returned with a mushroom and ointment for his injuries.

Mario gladly ate the mushroom, feeling power return to his weak body, and relaxed as Peach treated his wounds. Mario felt much better, afterwards, and knew that his brother had been the one to save him.

His brother was up in that shuttle, and even if it killed him, he was going to get him out.

* * *

Emmy took a double-take from the scene below to Luigi. Luigi, who was now concerned, began to back away from Emmy, just in case she decided to punish him. 

"That…" she began, a smile growing on her face, "was awesome! How did you _do_ that?"

Luigi said, "Well…" as he stared down at the floor.

"Aw, come on, stop being humble. I mean, come on, that was amazing!"

Luigi scratched his scalp and began looking around wildly. "Well, I guess it was…"

Emmy, still smiling, rolled her eyes. "Celebrate!" she demanded.

"What?" Luigi asked, suddenly confused.

"Celebrate!" Emmy said, waving her arms up in the air.

"Uh..." Luigi said. Finally he threw his arms up in the air and exclaimed, "Go Weegie!" upon which Emmy doubled over from laughter, and Luigi himself couldn't stop from laughing, his cheeks a slight tint of red.

Once their laughter had died down, the two looked out the window above the control panel. Mario and Peach were taking their last look at the fallen beast, and were beginning to leave the meadow.

"Princess Peach?!" Luigi exclaimed. "What is she doing here?"

Emmy seemed slightly confused. "Is she the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom?" she asked.

Luigi nodded. "I would've never expected her to go with Mario. She's usually the one who needs rescuing. And now it's me…"

"Well, everyone needs rescuing from time to time," Emmy said. "Even the heroes."

* * *

As Mario and Peach slowly made their way out of the meadow, a slow and steady stream of kijas made their way out of the forest. Mario tensed up and grabbed his hammer, but the kijas were making their way past them, simply ignoring them and focusing all their attention on the fallen creature. There were hundreds of them, some with their skeletons showing under their skin after months of constant starvation. 

They made their way towards their fallen adversary, and three climbed atop the dead body and began to let out a ferocious roar. The others gathered around in what seemed to Mario and Peach a sacred moment for the animals.

The others roared with the three, and Mario suddenly realized that they were celebrating the end of their suffering.


	8. Welcome to the Jungle

**Thanks for the great reviews guys! I'll try and keep the ball rolling. I'm trying really hard to finish the map of the Fuzzy Forest, but I'm also working on a drawing of Emmy and Luigi, so it might be awhile before I get anything done. **

* * *

"The hobgoblin said that we should see him again when we've defeated the beast," Peach pointed out as Mario and Peach debated where they should go.

Mario sighed. "You know what I think about him," he pointed out.

"Yes, I know. But we need to trust him, for now at least. Besides, what else are we going to do?"

Mario nodded, still a little tired from yesterday's battle. His wounds had slowly begun to heal, although his eye was still bruised and swollen. "Maybe he'll tell us where we're supposed to go after this." He hesitated. "Peach, there's something else I have to tell you."

Peach looked at him, waiting for him to explain.

"That shuttle," he said. "Luigi is in that shuttle, I know it. Remember when lightening rained down from the sky? That was Luigi, I'm sure of it."

Peach's eyes widened. "I had wondered what that was," she said. "I was going to ask you but you seemed too tired. So that's what his part in the prophecy was..."

Mario nodded. "It if hadn't been for Luigi, that would have ended much differently." Peach shuddered to think of such an outcome, while Mario kept his brother on his mind.

_I'm coming for you, bro,_ he thought. _Even if it kills me_.

* * *

Emmy leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. "I'm sorry about before," she said. "I just… I was…." 

"Scared?" Luigi asked, remembering how she had panicked once things began to go wrong.

She opened her eyes and nodded, as if saying it would be admitting to it. "I wasn't listening to you. Maybe I should… listen to you more often."

Luigi shrugged. "It's okay. Besides, I am your prisoner, aren't I?"

"Hmm?" Emmy asked, as if she'd completely forgotten. A shockwave ran across her face. "Oh, yes, right…"

Luigi petted his mustache as he thought. "I don't think you're really an enemy," he said. "You're not acting like one."

Emmy turned around her chair and stared at Luigi like a little kid getting caught for coloring on the wall. A second later she was preoccupying herself with flying the shuttle away from the meadow and towards some unknown destination.

"See!" Luigi pointed out. "You won't answer my question! Why are you holding me hostage, even when you're trying to act all nice by helping Mario and I? What are you aiming at?"

Luigi couldn't see Emmy as a tear threatened to roll down her face. Instead she looked through the window and began to direct the shuttle away from the forest, and over a large body of water, where the tiniest thread of land connected the forest to a far off jungle. They were leaving the Fuzzy Forest.

"Believe whatever you want," Emmy said.

"Do you really want to be on Bowser's side?! Or are you who you really say you are?" Luigi demanded, and Emmy swiveled her chair around again, this time putting Luigi in a power star bubble.

"This is your answer for everything, isn't it?" Luigi asked, losing all his patience and fear and slamming his fists uselessly against the bubble.

Emmy slowly dropped her hand, and the bubble popped. She turned around and laid her head down on the control panel.

After a long moment of silence, Luigi began to wonder if Emmy was okay, and if she was even crying.

She finally lifted her head and began to steer the shuttle. "We're going to go somewhere else," she said. "Our business here is done."

"Where?" Luigi asked, now sitting in a chair at the small dining table.

"Home," she said, sighing. "I'm finally going home. I haven't been to my home in the Macachi Jungle in a couple of years, so it might be a bit different than I remember. And also, I'm sorry I've been acting so mean to you. I just wanted to scare you, because honestly, I thought you and Mario were going to be, well, a little meaner."

Luigi smiled. "Me and Mario mean? Now that would be scary."

And even though Emmy didn't quite understand, she laughed anyways.

* * *

"Oh, so you have returned!" the hobgoblin greeted Mario and Peach inside the cave. "You look awful," he said, waving his lantern at Mario. He hung his lantern up and continued. "How did it go?" 

Mario began to describe in detail all that had happened, from his near loss, to Luigi's lightening strike, and to the kijas that roared when the giant beast had fallen.

"Interesting," the hobgoblin said. "So it was a giant kija, huh? Well, that makes sense. You see, this forest has been out of balance ever since that beast appeared. Fuzzys, which are the main source of food for the kijas, have been running away and disappearing, probably because the giant one was eating them up and scaring the rest away. The kijas, which are actually very gentle creatures, have become hostile, trying to feed themselves off of anything they can find. Which then explains their odd choice in food… coins. Thanks to you, Mario, the forest has been restored."

Mario and the princess had no idea that the forest had been so affected. "We… we are glad we could do whatever we could to help," Mario said.

The hobgoblin nodded, and then jumped, as if he had remembered something. " 'Shimmering gold for the hero of told'!" he quickly recited from the prophecy. "Yes," he said, rummaging through a cabinet that had been carved out of the stone wall of the cave. He carefully removed a shining power star and handed it over to Mario, who took it in return. "Emmy told me to give you this," the hobgoblin said.

"Well…" Peach said, unsure what to say to that. She finally came up with a question. "Why would Emmy give us back a power star?"

The hobgoblin shrugged. "I don't know who you people are," he said. "You don't seem to be keeping that in mind. All I know about is the prophecy. You were meant to receive it."

"Thank you, I guess," Mario said. "But do you know where my brother Luigi is? I need to find and rescue him."

The hobgoblin, who had temporarily turned around to rearrange a certain shelf, turned around in surprise. "Your brother needs rescuing? Why, it looked like he and the girl were friends!"

Mario and Peach's eyes widened in surprise. "Friends?" Mario asked wildly, concerned even more about his only family. "My brother was kidnapped!"

The hobgoblin held up his hands for Mario to be quiet. "The girl who was with Luigi is from a place not far from here, called the Macachi Jungle. There's a steep valley in the jungle where the Macachi Tribe lives. I'm almost positive she'll go back there. "

"Can you tell us how to get there?" Peach asked.

The hobgoblin nodded. "But only to the jungle. It's hard for anyone to find a way down into the valley. But the jungle... of course. Now listen closely…"

* * *

Luigi could hear the rushing of water and the caw of birds when he woke up the next morning. He sat up out of bed and saw that the shuttle door was open, along with his cage door. There was a small plate of berries set out on the dining table, along with some odd-looking leaves. 

He found his cap on the floor and pulled it over his dirty hair, then rolled out of bed and put on his shoes over his red and white striped socks. He looked out of the shuttle door and saw that Emmy wasn't anywhere around.

He stepped outside and examined his surroundings. He was in the middle of a thick jungle, and from the noise of rushing water, he could tell there was a waterfall somewhere close by. He took a few steps out, and after ducking under a few low-hanging vines, he reached the top of a hill, and looked down at the steep descent.

It was the top of a shallow gorge, he noticed. A steady stream of water flowed from the top of the edge across from him, and formed a river that snaked through down below. Smoke rose from somewhere down below, and Luigi noticed that the smoke was coming from tiny little huts clustered together. Luigi looked at it and thought it was the most brilliant sight he'd ever seen.

He heard footsteps behind him and turned around to see Emmy carrying another small plate with leaves and berries. "It's pretty, isn't it?" she asked, walking over next to him. "Most of the people who live down there have never even been up here." Her outfit had changed again; she was now wearing the jungle outfit, but instead of red markings on her face there were two simple brown lines across her cheeks.

"That's unfortunate," remarked Luigi.

Emmy simply nodded, and waved the plate of food around. "I made breakfast," she said, walking away towards the shuttle. "Let's eat, we have a long journey down to the valley."

Luigi turned around and followed Emmy back inside the shuttle, where he sat down and looked at the plate in front of him, wondering how to attack it first.

"Look," Emmy said, grabbing a dark red leaf and folding it open. "This is how you eat it." She grabbed a handful of random berries and dropped them onto the leaf. "It's kind of like what you would call a sandwich," she said, rolling up the leaf. "You try."

Luigi cautiously reached onto his plate and grabbed a similar looking leaf. He bundled some berries into it and rolled it up, then waited.

"Eat it!" Emmy said, smiling.

Luigi thought for a moment if it was a trap, and that a single bite from the leaf sandwich would kill him. He slowly brought the leaf to his mouth, and then took a huge, tart, bite.

Emmy laughed as Luigi twisted up his face from the tartness of the food. "Is it tart?" she asked, laughing. Luigi quickly swallowed the food and shoved his plate away. Emmy grabbed her own leaf and took a bite.

"That was mean," Luigi said, but then burst out laughing once Emmy's face also became contorted from the food.

"Oh… my… that is tart!" Emmy said, also shoving her food away. She held her mouth and closed her eyes as she tried to swallow. Once she'd gotten her food down she said, "I must've grabbed the wrong berries! I wasn't always the best gatherer."

"Well," Luigi said, still laughing, "I guess we can say that breakfast was a success!"

Emmy smirked at him. "Now that's just plain cruel," she said jokingly. Her face turned serious. "Alright now, we need to reach the valley by dark." She got up and threw out the ruined breakfast, then began packing provisions from the kitchen area into two large packs.

"Where did you get those?" Luigi asked, pointing to the packs.

Emmy let out a laugh. "You obviously haven't seen the massive storage bin this thing has. We can't fly down to the valley; there's no place to land. So we're going to hike down. Help me pack." She threw Luigi one of the packs, and the two began to stuff all of their provisions into the two packs.

And once they'd packed everything they'd needed, they walked out of the shuttle. Emmy locked the shuttle, and they walked off into the thick of the forest, towards the gorge.


	9. Rosie!

**This has some stuff from Luigi's Mansion in it, but I've never played the game (but I really want to!), so if I get anything wrong about it, please tell me! **

**For some reason this is one of my favorite chapters so far. I don't know if it's because of Rosie, but whatever. Enjoy!**

* * *

It had been an hour since they'd left the meadow, and in front of them there was still no sign of life, just the constant middle pathway of sand that lie in front them. The hobgoblin had told them about the tiny thread of land that had connected the forest and the jungle long ago. 

Mario and Peach, however, had found it to be already sunken into the ocean. Now it was just a shallow trail in the water where they could walk without getting too wet. Mario, being the shorter of the two, now had water up to his waist, while Peach had already given up holding up her dress, and let it float along in the salty water.

"How much more of this do we have to take?" Peach complained as she looked back at her ruined dress. "He said it was only a three-hour journey!"

"I hate to give the bad news, Peach," Mario said, "but it's only been one hour."

Peach rolled her eyes in despair, just as a little red and white bird flew over to them from up ahead. "We must be getting closer to land!" Peach said, running up towards the bird.

The bird hovered in mid-air, cocked its head to the side, and then perched atop the princess's crown. Peach screamed. "Get it off!"

The bird tilted its head again and looked at Mario. "Rosie," it said simply.

"Hold still Peach!" Mario yelled, running over to her. He asked the bird, "What did you say?"

"Rosie," the bird said again. "Rosie."

"Rosie?" Mario asked, hoping to communicate.

"Rosie," the bird said. "Name's Rosie."

"The bird has a name?" Peach asked, her eyes looking upwards at the bird. The bird lifted off of the crown and hovered. "Rosie," it said. "Follow Rosie."

Mario and Peach looked at each other with confused eyes. But Rosie continued on, and the two quickened their pace to follow.

* * *

"You ready?" Emmy asked Luigi, looking back up at him. Luigi's teeth clenched as he looked down at the death drop. "It's not as steep as it looks!" Emmy yelled back up. "Come on! We're wasting time." 

"Can't you just put me in one of those power star bubbles and have me float down with you?" Luigi asked hopefully, however, Emmy gave him a look that had 'no' written all over it.

She encouraged him. "If you do fall, then yes I will catch you. Just please, hurry up!"

Luigi turned and faced the side of the gorge and then looked down as he steadily began to place his feet, one after the other and occasionally holding onto a vine or two, until he was at the same level as Emmy.

"See?" she asked, walking across the ledge, "that wasn't so bad, was it?"

Luigi shook his head. It really hadn't.

"Besides, that's all the climbing we'll be doing today. I know a shortcut," Emmy said, disappearing around a corner on the ledge.

"Wait!" Luigi called out, and stepped around the corner. In front of Emmy was a large cave with a boulder on the inside. "It's blocked," Emmy said. "But the passageway is always open!" She ran over to one side of the boulder, and after pushing a few overhanging plants out of the way, she pushed on one side of the boulder. It remained in the same place.

Luigi ran over to help, and even with the strength of the two combined, it was not enough to make the boulder move. They eventually gave up, and Emmy sighed, walking over to the edge of the ledge. "Well," she began, "unless we can find some magical way to move the boulder, I guess we'll be taking the hard way down."

Luigi grimaced and shuddered at the thought of climbing down the side of mountain. But unless he found the power to move boulders, there was no other choice.

* * *

"Rosie!" 

The bird continuously called out its own name as they followed it. Rosie flew up ahead and then waited for them to catch up, then flew off again, annoying the princess. "Why doesn't this bird just tell us where we're going?" she complained.

Mario shrugged, although secretly agreed with the princess. "Maybe it can't speak very well." They were still being led along the shallowest trail of water, so the two didn't see why the bird needed to lead them anywhere.

An hour ago, they had started to see what looked like a small mountain on an island in the distance, surrounded by jungle.

The bird flew back to them. "Rosie!" it called out. "This way!" It deviated off the trail, and Mario and Peach gave each other unsure glances. Not wanting to lose sight of the bird, however, they stepped off the trail and into deep water, where they had to tread to keep up with the small bird.

"Swim!" the bird called out. "Fast!"

Tired from the day's excursion, the two swimmers could not quicken their pace. The bird, impatient now, flew quickly above and around them.

"Look, Mario!" Peach said, overjoyed at the sight of a beach up ahead. They swam faster, and eventually caught up to the little red bird who was jumping around on the sand.

"Rosie shortcut!" the bird said.

"Yes," Mario said, pulling himself up onto the beach. "Thank you, Rosie." He collapsed on the sand along with Peach.

"Sleep?" Rosie asked.

Mario and Peach, their eyes both drooping, answered yes together.

"Okay!" the bird said. "Rosie watch out for you!"

Reassured by the bird's small promise, Mario and Peach quickly fell asleep under the sun. But the moment they had fallen asleep, the little bird had taken off.

* * *

"You can do it, Luigi!" Emmy shouted up to Luigi, who was holding on for dear life to a vine on the side of the gorge. "Just don't look down. Remember, relax your body and let yourself slide down the vine. If you miss I'll catch you." 

Luigi gulped, but he looked down anyways, and then looked back up at his hands. _I need to be brave_, he thought, and then listened to what Emmy had said. He closed his eyes and let his muscles relax, and then pushed his feet up against the rock wall. He opened his eyes again as he felt himself slowly falling down the vine, using his feet to guide him.

"Luigi!" Emmy yelled up at him.

"I know!" he yelled back, still focusing his sight on the wall. "I'm getting the hang of it."

Emmy's voice came back panicked. "No, Luigi! The vine is breaking loose!" Luigi, his hands now steady, looked up at where the vine was attached to the wall. A few feet above him, the vine was slowly snapping apart.

"Mama mia!" Luigi exclaimed. "Get me down!"

"Luigi, grab onto the side of the wall," Emmy instructed him. "You're going to have to let go of the vine and grab onto the wall, otherwise, you'll fall."

Luigi let go of his fears for the time, and held onto the vine with his left arm, while reaching out to the wall with this right. He found an easy place to grab on to, and shifted his weight accordingly.

"Hurry!" Emmy yelled back. Luigi looked up to see the vine being held together by a tiny thread. Luigi pulled himself over with his right hand and tried desperately to find a foothold for his right foot. He fumbled around, until he found it, but then there was snap, and despite the fact that he'd been holding himself up against the wall, Luigi began to fall.

"No!" Emmy screamed out as Luigi began hurtling down to the ground. Luigi closed his eyes as he fell, knowing the end was coming. After a moment or so the sensation of falling stopped, and he opened his eyes to see himself in a golden bubble. He'd never been so happy to be in that bubble all his life. He looked up to see Emmy lying down over the rim of the ledge above him, holding her hand out towards him.

Slowly, the bubble drifted upwards and safely back on the ledge where Emmy was waiting. She sat down and sighed as the bubble around Luigi popped.

"That was close," Luigi said, standing as close to the gorge wall as he could. "Too close."

"Do you want to rest?" Emmy asked, taking the pack off of her back and laying it down on the ledge. Luigi nodded, and the two sat down and took out two apples to eat for a snack.

"Rosie!"

Emmy and Luigi both looked at each other. "Did you hear something?" Luigi asked, and Emmy nodded, looking upwards and around.

"Rosie!"

Suddenly a red bird with a white underbelly came from above and hovered next to Emmy's head. "Rosie?" Emmy asked the bird.

"Rosie!" the little bird repeated. "Intruder!"

"No, Rosie," Emmy said as if she were talking to a child. She pointed to herself and said, "Macachi. Emmy."

Rosie tilted her head and looked at Emmy with big eyes. "Macachi. Rosie get help." The bird turned to fly away, but Emmy swiftly grabbed it by its tail feathers.

"No!" Emmy said, and then turned to Luigi who was looking at both of them confused. "Why is Rosie out here?" Emmy asked the bird.

"Sandro tell Rosie," the bird replied, flying down to stand on the ledge. Emmy sagged her shoulders. "Sandro tell Rosie go find people. Rosie see big bird."

"Rosie see shuttle?" Emmy interrogated.

"Rosie see big bird," Rosie quickly replied.

Emmy rolled her eyes. "You're helpful. I see Sandro is up to his tricks again. Rosie, I need to know where you came from just now."

"Beach!" Rosie replied. "Red person and pink person. Rosie help!"

"Mario and Peach!" Luigi yelled, practically jumping up from his spot, still completely unaware of what Rosie was.

"How did you help them?" Emmy asked.

"Rosie help people from ocean. Lead them to jungle. Asleep, now."

"Well, go back to the beach, Rosie, and lead the red and pink people down into the jungle. Lead them to the tribe. Okay?"

The bird ruffled its feathers before saying, "Lead people to tribe. Okay! Rosie go." The little bird then took off, and flew back out of the gorge.

"Uh…" said Luigi. "Do you want to explain to me exactly what that thing was?"

"That's a Rosie," Emmy replied. "They're very intelligent birds, aside from the fact that they don't have the best dictionary of all time. They fly pretty fast. They're the pets of our chief's ancestral line. Every chief of our tribe has had a Rosie. They do whatever the chief tells them too. But there's this one kid, Sandro, who's the chief's son. He likes to think he's important and so he makes himself seem important by ordering people, and the Rosie around." She shook her head and smiled. "In all honesty, though, I kind of miss him. My friend Lucas and I always played pranks on him."

"So…" Luigi said with a slight smile. "Rosie's going to lead Mario and Peach to the Macachi tribe?" Emmy nodded and tossed her apple core.

"We need to keep moving or else we won't make it down before sunset. Let's go."

Luigi's heart lifted, knowing that very soon, he might be able to see his brother again.

* * *

Mario opened his eyes to see the little red and white bird in front of him. "Rosie keep safe!" it chirped, hopping over to where Peach was, and pecking lightly at her face. "Wake!" it said to her.

Peach slowly opened her eyes and stood up next to Mario.

"Move! Follow Rosie!" the bird said and then took off into the jungle up ahead. Mario and Peach, their limbs tired and worn out still, ran off the beach and into the thick jungle after the bird, who was able to travel through hanging vines and branches more easily than the humans.

"Rosie!" Mario called out to the bird. "Slow down! We can't keep up."

Rosie flew back. "Big bird this way!" she told them, and then took off again. "Hurry!" Mario and Peach tried their best to keep up, until finally they were standing in front of a giant silver shuttle.

"Rosie see big bird!" Rosie said, flying to the top of the shuttle and then pecking it once with her beak. Mario and Peach stared in awe at the shuttle.

"Luigi!" Mario called out, and ran up to the shuttle door, trying to pull it open. It was locked. "Luigi, are you in there?!" Mario yelled frantically as he ran to the front of the shuttle and peered in the window. He walked back around to where Peach was standing. "He's not in there," Mario said, disappointed.

"Rosie see Macachi. Rosie see Emmy. Also man in red but green."

"You've see Emmy? And a man in red but green…?" Peach asked.

"You've see Luigi!" Mario yelled. "A man in green. Did he look like me?"

Rosie tilted her head and looked at Mario. "Rosie see man in green. Luigi! Rosie see Luigi! Rosie see Emmy."

"She's seen Emmy and Luigi…" Peach said. "Can you tell us where they went?"

"Rosie take you to Macachi. Emmy and Luigi go there now. Follow Rosie!" The bird flew off the shuttle and into the distance. Mario immediately followed.

"Mario," Peach said. "Can we trust this bird?"

"Rosie's seen Luigi," Mario said, smiling. "I have to find Luigi, and if that means following a semi-stupid bird that talks in third-person, so be it!"

* * *

Emmy set her pack down on the ground with a thud, and Luigi did the same. They'd just reached the ground, which Luigi was very happy about, after a long day of climbing down the gorge. "Ugh," Luigi complained. "I don't like carrying packs. The only thing I'll carry on my back is a poltergust!" 

"A what?" Emmy asked, unpacking a tent.

"Oh, it's this thing that Professor E. Gadd made. It sucks up ghosts. I had to use it awhile back to save my brother from a haunted mansion."

"Hold the phone!" Emmy said. "You had to save your brother? From a haunted mansion? Never heard that story. Tell me."

So while Emmy set up the tent and got a fire going as the sun went down, Luigi began to tell his story about the mansion he'd won in a contest he'd never entered, and that Mario was supposed to meet him there. He'd gone into the house only to see ghosts and then he met Professor E. Gadd, who gave him the Poltergust 3000, and Luigi told Emmy how he'd gone through the whole house and had eventually beaten King Boo.

"So, there I was," Luigi said to Emmy, who was easily entranced by the story, "fighting Bowser, who was really King Boo in a Bowser suit. He kept breathing fire at me, but with the help of my Poltergust, I was able to capture King Boo and his crown. I found my brother's portrait and took it back to E. Gadd's lab, where my brother was turned back into himself. I was never so happy to see my brother in all my life. And I got a brand new mansion out of it, too."

Emmy took her marshmallow stick out of the fire. "That's an awesome story. Honestly."

"Thanks," Luigi said. "Do you have any stories?"

Emmy chuckled. "I wish I did. If I did though, they wouldn't be as amazing as yours."

Luigi had turned his attention elsewhere though, for he had heard a distant cracking sound. "Did you hear that?" he asked, standing up.

There was an even closer cracking noise, followed by a low growl, and now Emmy had picked up her stick and was holding it as a weapon. "I know that sound," she said, then handed Luigi the stick. "Take this, you might need it."

Luigi took the stick, and then asked, "What is it?"

Emmy put her finger to her lips, telling Luigi to be quiet as they crept away from the fire and out towards the sound. There was another low growl as they continued on, and the plants in front of them began to shudder.

"Get ready!" Emmy yelled, as suddenly a wild boar ran out of the jungle and headed straight towards them. Luigi raised his stick that seemed so useless to him now, while Emmy put up a force field between the boar and them.

The boar growled in frustration, throwing its head in the air and pacing from side to side.

"Luigi, we need to make it go away," Emmy said. "Remember when you did that thing with the lightening on the shuttle? Can you try that again? Just scare it a little so it will go away."

Luigi nodded, putting down the stick and closing his eyes. Luigi searched the air with his mind, trying to find the particles of energy he needed. It was harder this time than on the shuttle, but he eventually got enough energy, and opening his eyes, he released it in front of the boar. Terrified, the boar screamed and ran off. Relieved, Emmy released the force field, and wordlessly she and Luigi made their way back to the fire.

"We eat boars in the tribe," Emmy explained. "I was afraid one of them would come near here. Say, when you do that lightening thing of yours, is it kind of like feeding off the energy of the element, or vice versa?"

Luigi thought. "Well, it's both, because I'm using both my energy and the energy of the lightening."

Emmy concentrated for a moment, and then said, "Give me your hand, I want to try something."

Luigi held out a gloved hand, and Emmy took it. Instantly Luigi could sense that Emmy was getting ready to use a power star.

"I need you to concentrate on using your energy, Luigi."

Luigi harnessed the energy again, and then felt it being used by Emmy. He opened his eyes and there was a green electrified power star bubble in front of him. "Mama mia," he said in awe under his breath.

Suddenly the bubble disappeared and their hands moved away from each other. "Well," Emmy said. "I think we can go pretty far with that, don't you?"

Luigi nodded, and then he knew at once that Emmy wasn't really his enemy at all. She was his friend.

* * *

**Yay for talking birds! I'll try and keep up this updating spree I have going on. Hopefully we'll see the Macachi tribe next chapter!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Okay, so I was really rushed when I wrote this chapter, so I'm sorry if it's not very good. I'll try and come back and polish it up, but I've been really busy lately. **

**btw, the drawing of Emmy and the map of the Fuzzy Forest are now up! links are on my profile!**

* * *

"Wake up!"

Mario opened his eyes to see the annoying red bird in front of him. "I'm up, I'm up…" Mario said, sitting up in his sleeping back and crawling out of the tent.

"Rosie find food!" the little bird chirped, pointing to two bundles of leaves with berries inside them. "Eat!" The bird flew back into the tent, to wake Peach up, Mario thought. Peach screamed and the bird flew out. A few seconds later Peach had crawled out of the tent, looked angry. "I despise that bird!" she muttered under her breath.

"Good morning, Peach!" Mario exclaimed, handing her one of the leaf bundles Rosie had found. "Rosie found some food for us!"

Peach put on a smile and grabbed the food.

"We go down cliff!" Rosie said, and Mario asked, "We're going down a cliff?"

Rosie nodded. "Follow me!"

Mario ran after the speedy little bird, who led him to a gorge. He could see the waterfall across from him, and the little river that flowed down below. Huts gathered in an area down below as well, and smoke rose from the center of them.

"Macachi!" Rosie exclaimed. "Eat! We hurry!"

Mario and Peach quickly finished their meal, and packed their things—Rosie also tried to help them pack quicker—and then set off towards the same steep hill that Emmy and Luigi had gone down the day before.

Peach looked down the steep descent. "Are we climbing down there?!" she exclaimed, staring wide-eyed at the little bird.

"You no climb down?" the bird asked, then began to fly off. "I be back!"

"Wait!" Mario called out, but the little bird had already sped off down into the gorge and out of sight.

* * *

Emmy looked up into the sky and noticed the storm clouds that were beginning to make their way over the edge of the gorge. "We need to hurry," she said. "It's going to rain."

Luigi, however, was oblivious, staring at all the creatures running around in the forest. Flies were attracted to him, and every second he seemed to be swatting away another one.

"Rosie!"

Emmy stopped walking and rolled her eyes when she heard the little bird. "What now?" she asked before she even saw Rosie.

Rosie flew over to them and sat on Luigi's cap, temporarily causing the bugs to fly away. "Secret way!" Rosie exclaimed.

"What about it?" Emmy asked.

"Pink person and red person. Go down secret way?"

Emmy looked around, thinking. "Sure, just make sure they have no idea where they are going. By the way, have you talked to Sandro or Micah lately?"

"Micah no. Sandro two day ago."

Emmy nodded. "Well, then you should be getting back. By the way, their names are Mario and Peach. Peach is pink person, Mario is red person. Okay?"

"Okay!" the little bird exclaimed, and then left Luigi's cap and flew off, causing the bugs to return.

Emmy noticed this, and said, "Why are there so many bugs around you? Can't you zap them off with your lightening or something?"

"Hmm," Luigi thought. "I never thought about it like that." He captured some of the energy and then let it flow through his fingers. He waved his fingers next to a fly, and a spark flew out and hit it, and it fell to the ground. "Bingo!" he said. "I never knew I could do that!"

So the two continued on, Luigi zapping any fly who got too close, and Emmy keeping a wary eye out for anything that might attack.

* * *

"There!" Mario shouted, standing up, as the little bird made its way back.

"Rosie sorry!" the bird said. "No go down gorge. Rosie know secret way! Follow Rosie!" Mario and Peach, frustrated with the little bird's disappearance, decided to follow it in silence. The little bird slowed to keep pace, until finally they had made their way closer to where the waterfall was.

"Secret way over here!" Rosie said, and then flew onto a tree branch. "Go forward," it said, pointing its wing forward.

The sound of rushing water was rich in Mario and Peach's ears, and the gorge was well-hidden from the trees and vines. "Just keep going forward?" Mario asked, and the little bird nodded. "I think this is a trap," Mario whispered back to Peach.

"No trap!" the bird said. "Go forward. Secret way!"

Mario, still unsure about whether or not he could trust the bird, stepped forward in between two trees, and felt as the ground beneath him gave way.

"Mario!" Peach exclaimed, running over to the hole that Mario had fallen in.

Mario landed upon a bed of vines, his arms and legs a little achy from the fall. He looked up to see that he'd fallen a long ways down.

"You go too!" Rosie exclaimed, and pushed Peach into the hole after Mario.

"Princess!" Mario yelled. Peach landed next to Mario in a deep dark hole, on a soft bed of vines. After making sure that neither of them was hurt, they examined the deep hole they had fallen in.

"That bird tricked us!" Mario said, just as Rosie began to fly down to meet them.

"No trap," the bird said, perching on a branch that was sticking out of the earthen wall. "Secret way! Rosie show you secret way. This is secret way. Look to right, Mario."

Mario looked over to his right and widened his eyes to see through the engulfing darkness. He walked over to the earthen wall and felt a wide gap. "It's a tunnel!" he exclaimed.

"Rosie no trap! Rosie friend!"

Mario sighed. "We're sorry we didn't trust you," Peach said. "Where does this tunnel lead?"

"Valley!" Rosie exclaimed. "Dark! Hold on to my tail!"

Mario grabbed onto Rosie's tail feathers gently, Peach held onto Mario's arm, and the three traveled down the dark tunnel into the Macachi Valley.

* * *

"We're dangerously close now," Emmy said to Luigi, setting down her pack. "Remember when I told you about the warrior ritual we have?"

Luigi nodded, and also set down his pack.

"Okay, I probably won't have to fight. I've been away from here for about two years, but Chief Micah is nice. However, you might have to fight. I don't know who their warrior is now, but I can give you some lessons on how to beat them. We don't fight like anyone else."

Luigi agreed, and they found a cleared out space not far from their packs.

"Now," Emmy said, standing in the middle of the clearing. "We start facing each other in the middle. We shake hands…" The two shook hands and Emmy continued, "And then we turn away from each other, and take five paces." Luigi and Emmy turned away and took five steps from each other, and then faced each other again. "And then we bow."

Luigi bowed to Emmy and then faced her. "This isn't fair," he pointed out. "You're a Lota."

Emmy held up her hands. "No power stars. Promise. Ready? Go!"

Luigi was caught off guard as Emmy sped off towards him, her fists held out in front of her. Luigi ran towards her too, but at the last second Emmy veered away from him, and then suddenly Luigi was pushed down to the ground from behind and tackled. Luigi sprang up with his legs and spun around to face Emmy. He quickly found any energy he could and used it on Emmy, who was shot back. She hit a tree and fell to the ground.

Luigi celebrated, but then suddenly realized that Emmy wasn't getting up. "Emmy?" he yelled, and then ran over to where she lay. She looked up at him, and then took the hand that he offered to help her up.

"You should have no problem," she said, staggering a bit. "You sure are a smart fighter. I didn't see that coming."

"Are you okay?" he asked, noticing she was having trouble walking.

She shrugged it off. "I'm fine. It won't take us more than a minute to reach the tribe."

They went back to their packs and began to walk off towards the direction they'd been heading earlier. Luigi kept an eye on Emmy to make sure she was okay, until he heard a yell from up ahead. There was a moving blur in the trees and Emmy stopped walking.

"We wait here," she said. They waited for a while until finally a man from the Macachi tribe stepped into view. He had a boyish face and red markings across his face that looked like the ones that Emmy had on before. His hair was dark and long and it covered his face.

Emmy instantly recognized him. "Lucas!" she cried out and ran up to him and hugged him. After their embrace she stepped back and looked at him. "You're the warrior now?"

Lucas laughed and was about to say something until a figure appeared out from behind him. He was very tall and had an ornate headdress on, that made him appear even taller. His outfit was also ornate, as if he was a god among people, with turquoise and emerald jewels upon his fingers, and extravagant blue markings on his face.

Emmy scoffed at him, however. "Hello, Sandro," she said with an air of arrogance. "I see you haven't changed. Did you steal that outfit from you father? Still trying to be the chief, huh?"

Lucas was shaking his head and shooting warning glances at Emmy, who ignored them.

Sandro stared intensely at Emmy, and then Emmy came to a realization. "Oh…" she said. Before she could reply, Sandro said, "My father… Chief Micah… has passed on to Didajne, only two weeks ago. I am Chief now."

Emmy blushed, thoroughly embarrassed, and then quickly said, "My most sincere apologies, Chief Sandro, and my deepest respects for Chief Micah's passing. I am truly sorry, and wish for acceptance back into the tribe way of life." She bowed before him, and Luigi noted the slight smile that made Luigi burn with anger. Sandro was gloating.

"Stand up straight," the chief ordered, and Emmy complied. "You will not be accepted back into tribe way of life until… who is that?"

Sandro looked at Luigi, who had been ignored up until that point and Emmy introduced him. "This is Luigi," she said. "He's from the Mushroom Kingdom from across the worlds. He's uh….. a friend."

Sandro raised his eyebrows. "Well then, both of you, individually, must beat my warrior Lucas for entry."

"Yes, Chief Sandro," Emmy said, bowing again. She ran back to Luigi. "I'll fight first so you can see how it's done," she whispered.

Lucas took his spot, and Emmy walked up towards him. Luigi noticed a smirk on the old friends' faces as they shook hands.

Lucas whispered jokingly to Emmy, "Don't think you're winning this one so easily." Emmy took her hand away. "Haven't you ever heard that you're supposed to let the girls go first?"

"Yeah, I have," Lucas responded. "That's so they'll get eaten by the dragon first."

They turned around and took five paces from each other, then turned around and bowed. Chief Sandro, who now had two men beside him yelled out, "Uta, ai!"

Lucas stood his ground while Emmy ran towards him. Luigi noted that Lucas looked sure of what he was doing. Emmy, unexpectedly, and with a smirk on her face, threw out a power star and created a force field above the ground. She leaped onto it and then jumped up in the air, landing behind Lucas and body-slamming him onto the ground. She held him fast, and then whispered something in his ear.

Lucas wriggled free and then turned to face Emmy, just as she blasted him with a power star attack. He went flying to the ground face first, and then Emmy, who looked slightly weaker, stood ready. Lucas stood up non-threateningly, and bowed, Emmy following his lead. Chief Sandro, upset by his warrior's defeat, let a smug look crawl across his face. Emmy, looking slightly dazed, walked over to where Luigi wait. "You're turn," she said. "You'll be fine."

Luigi gulped, even though he'd seen Emmy defeat Lucas with ease. He walked over and face Lucas, then took his hand.

"I've never seen anyone with clothes like yours," Lucas remarked, grass in his hair and dirt on his face from Emmy's attack. "I'll go easy on you, okay?"

Luigi shook his hand even harder. "I'd appreciate a challenge."

"Suit yourself," Lucas said, and then walked five paces away from Luigi. Luigi did the same, and then they turned to face each other and bowed.

"Uta, ai!" came the words from Chief Sandro's mouth, and Luigi instantly harnessed his lightening energy, releasing it on Lucas, throwing him backwards. He hit a tree off the bat, but then instantly jumped back up, unphased. He ran at Luigi in a similar manner to how Emmy had done and Luigi dodged the attack jumping behind him and throwing a punch to his back. Lucas fell to the ground, and then asked Luigi, "Are you sure you want to keep fighting? There's really no reason to."

Luigi came to his senses and realized he was right. He stood still and waited as Lucas got to his feet and bowed. Luigi bowed in turn, and then everyone turned their attention towards Chief Sandro, who was beside himself in anger.

"Welcome to the Macachi tribe," he said bitterly to Luigi, and then walked off, everyone following them.

"Well," Emmy said, walking beside Luigi. "We're in."

They entered into a wide clearing with wooden huts scattered neatly around a central fire. Meat was cooking graciously over the fire, and people were running around, most with brown stripes across their cheeks, others with green. From what Luigi could tell, Lucas was the only one with red markings and Sandro the only one with blue.

The huts were round with dome tops, and had windows and doors like any house would. "It's really… nice here," Luigi said, at a loss of words.

"Yeah," Emmy remarked. "We're more primitive than you guys, huh?"

Many of the people had realized their chief's absence and the presence of the newcomers and were standing around gossiping to one another.

"Emmy!" a loud cry came from one of the huts. A slightly elderly woman came running out of a hut, throwing her arms around Emmy and hugging her tightly.

"Auntie," Emmy said, "I can't breathe." The woman released her and then took her by the hand. "You've finally come back! Come inside!"

Luigi, confused about whom to follow, decided to go with Emmy and her aunt into the hut. Inside there were three rooms from what he could tell, the one he was in had five chairs and a pail of water on a table, and other various tools from axes to spears to…

"And who might you be?"

Luigi looked at the woman and answered, "I'm Luigi. I'm from the Mushroom Kingdom. And you are?"

"You can call me Jessi," she said pleasantly. "I've never heard of the Mushroom Kingdom," she said. "Sit, sit. You must be tired, you two." They all sat down and Jessi began interrogated Luigi.

"Auntie," Emmy complained. "Is this really necessary?"

"Of course! You come home after two years with a strange man. Why, Emmy…" She whispered into Emmy's ear, and Emmy jumped.

"AUNTIE!" she yelled with outrage, then turned to Luigi. "Luigi, you don't mind giving us a bit of privacy, do you?" Before Luigi could even answer, Emmy had already stuck her head out of the window and was yelling, "Lucas! Do you mind showing Luigi around?"

Lucas appeared in the doorway, and soon Luigi was escorted out.

"You run off for two years and never come back?!" her aunt yelled at her once Luigi was gone. "You should be ashamed of yourself, making your poor old auntie worry so much."

"Auntie…" Emmy groaned burying her face in her hands. "You know why I left. I needed to find my parents."

"Your parents are gone, child, and you should remember that. You can not get them back. The person who keeps them is too strong. Otherwise, we would have gone after him ourselves."

"I'm a Lota," Emmy pointed out.

"Your powers are weak in comparison to all the other Lotas there have been. You can NOT handle it!"

Emmy knew it was the truth, but every time she heard it she burned with anger. "That doesn't mean I can't do anything. Luigi, he has powers too. Together, he and I can defeat the one who has my parents!"

Jessi studied her sister's daughter for a while, until saying, "Well, I guess there's no dissuading you from that… There's something else I wanted to ask you."

Emmy rolled her eyes, knowing exactly what her aunt was going to ask.

"No, don't you give me that look. Now, I want to know what you plan on doing."

"Auntie, I have no intention of getting married yet, just please, let me live my life the way I want to."

"That's fine," Jessi said. "I just want to give you some food for thought. What about Lucas?"

Emmy stared stark-eyed at her aunt. "Lucas?! No, he's my friend. Besides, he wants to live here in the jungle, and I always thought it would be cooler, to you know, _explore_ a bit."

"Hmm, well then what about the handsome young man you've brought back with you?" Jessi asked, smiling. "He seems nice so far. His outfit…" Jessi continued until Emmy interrupted her.

"Luigi?! Are you out of your mind?"

"Well, what's wrong with him?"

Emmy realized she couldn't come up with anything to say. She rolled her eyes instead, and then looked out the window, where she could just barely see Luigi and Lucas. Her mind began to wander and she blamed her aunt for it. She shook her mind free, and then turned to her aunt. "I'm going to see if anyone wants to play ball," she said, and she stormed sadly out of the hut.

Luigi, practically confused by everything that Lucas had told him so far, turned around to see Emmy approaching him. She looked sad, and was glancing around from side to side.

"You don't look yourself," Luigi told her.

"I don't exactly feel myself," Emmy said, folding her arms and acting shy. She was avoiding eye contact with Emmy and Luigi. "Do you guys just want to hang or play ball, or what?"

Lucas shuffled his feet. "You two gave me a pretty good beating. I can't take much more today. Why don't we just talk?" Lucas began to walk off towards his hut and the others followed.


	11. Lucas's Rebellion

**This chapter's a bit shorter than the previous couple, but the next chapter will be about double this. Part of Emmy, Lucas's and the tribe's past are revealed! **

**On another note, I'm aware of the mary-sueish tendancies that Emmy has. I try taking the mary-sue test every day just to see if she's heading in the wrong direction. So far I've been able to tone it down a lot, but my writing sometimes reflects things differently than when I think them. Let me know if you think she's to sue-ish!**

**Other than that, enjoy!**

* * *

"Look at the sky!" Mario exclaimed, closing his eyes and feeling the wind on his face. "Isn't it beautiful?" 

Peach was equally as happy as Mario to be out in the open air again. They'd spent an hour walking through the dark tunnel, however, Rosie seemed not to care and only encouraged them to press on.

"Must hurry!" she said, flying ahead. "Must reach river by nightfall."

Mario looked up to see that the sun was setting on the top of the gorge. Anything outside the gorge would have another two hours of sunlight at the least, but anything trapped inside the gorge would have early nightfall. Aware of this, Mario, Peach and Rosie continued on, while Mario and Peach tried to decipher who Rosie worked for.

* * *

Luigi listened intently as Emmy and Lucas described tribal life to him. The markings on their faces signified what they did. The common people wore simple brown stripes across their cheeks signifying earth, the people in the Wisdom Council wore green markings signifying plants, the warrior wore red markings signifying fire, and the chief wore blue ornate markings signifying water and sky. 

They worshiped a goddess by the name of Didajne, and all who died in the tribe left the earth to go to an endless jungle and live in peace.

There were gatherers and hunters, cookers, clothes makers and watchers, who watched over the children. The jungle extended far past the gorge, and beyond that was the desert where the Coha tribe lived, with their leader Gatz.

"When Luigi and I were on our way here, we noticed the passageway was blocked," Emmy pointed out. "Did something happen to it?"

Lucas shook his head. "Chief Sandro has changed a lot in the tribe. He won't let anyone leave the tribe. He says that it is a sin against Didajne to leave. So he's blocked the passageway. The secret way is still open, though."

Emmy sighed. "Good. Well, Sandro better get his head back in the game. Let me guess, he said that my leaving was against Didajne?"

Lucas nodded. "Yes, he said that. There's something else he's done that no one really cares for. He's broken the peace treaty with Gatz and the Cohas."

Emmy's eyes widened. "What? Micah worked forever to achieve peace with them! What did he do?"

"He's refused the Cohas their land in the jungle. He said it is rightfully, by the will of Didajne, to belong to the Macachi."

Emmy shook her head. "And there is nothing we can do…"

"Why don't you just overthrow him?" Luigi asked, but then suddenly regretted his question.

"Are you insane?!" Emmy said, wide-eyed. "No. Now that is a sin against Didajne. You can be exiled for that."

Lucas, however, seemed not to care about Luigi's comment. "I… I agree," he said finally. "Chief Sandro should be overthrown."

Emmy turned her head towards Sandro and laughed. "Okay, now you _are_ insane."

Lucas said, "No, Emmy, I'm serious. I know it says that it is a sin against Didajne, but the code also says that the family line will be broken when the world agrees again. I know you remember learning that. We always thought we'd be the ones who would overthrow the chief and then rule together. Emmy, I think I was meant to be the one to fulfill that. I think I'm meant to be chief."

Emmy remained silent and twiddled with her fingers. She looked over at Luigi. "You want to go visit some other people?" she asked.

Luigi, suddenly aware of the uncomfortable situation he was in, nodded his head.

"So that's what you do?" Lucas said, offended. "You run away from the situation. Just like you ran away from here two years ago."

Emmy turned on Lucas, hostile. "I did not run away! I left with the blessing of Chief Micah himself. I left to find my parents."

"Oh, you were real successful in that, weren't you?"

Luigi got out of his chair to leave.

"Luigi, no," Emmy said, grabbing his arm. "Please stay. I'm sorry."

Luigi reluctantly sat back down.

After a minute of silence, Lucas apologized. "I'm sorry, Emmy. I really shouldn't have said that. I just kind of got caught up in it."

Emmy nodded. "I'm sorry too. You're mad at me, aren't you? For leaving?"

Lucas sighed. "It was two years ago, it's pointless for me to be mad at you anymore. I am leading a revolution, though. I already have some people who'll support me when I become chief. Talon, Kavu, Tia…"

"Fine," Emmy said. "I believe you. I'm not staying here that long." Quickly changing the subject, she asked, "You want to go play strikers?"

Luigi asked, "You play strikers here?" Just then a tremendous crack of thunder echoed overhead, and a raging downpour fell from the sky.

"So much for that idea," Luigi remarked.

* * *

"Hurry!" Rosie yelled, soaring ahead towards the top of the hill. "Rain!" 

Mario and Peach looked up to see the rolling thunderclouds glow briefly with lightening. A few drops fell onto the ground, and the two quickened their pace to keep up. Suddenly the rain was coming down by the gallons, soaking Mario and Peach within seconds.

They raced to the top of a hill where Rosie waited, all the while trying not to trip over the roots and vines of the forest floor.

"Stand under tree!" Rosie called from atop the tree branch she was perched on. Mario and Peach were currently happy, however, under Peach's umbrella.

"Rest here until tomorrow," Rosie said, and then promptly tucked her head under her wing falling asleep.

Peach sighed. "Well, I guess we better start setting up camp…"

Still under the umbrella, they walked over to the tree and found it unbelievably dry underneath. They unpacked their tent, and then the two took shelter from the rain, and waited for the storm to pass.

Mario's vision faded, and suddenly he was back in his dream he'd had almost a week ago. He remembered the trees falling, the chief of some jungle tribe taking away the child of a couple who had to be left behind. The realization hit him like a bullet bill, and he then explained his dream to Peach.

"This is the same jungle!" he exclaimed. "I'm sure of it. Someone who lives in that tribe is that child! And the thing from the trees. I still can't figure out what it is."

"Big beast!" Rosie chirped, having listened in one Mario and Peach's conversation. "Big beast come for Macachi child."

"What did the beast look like?" Mario asked desperately.

"Rosie no there. No talk about." With that she tucked her head back under her wing and fell asleep.

Mario and Peach both sighed. The answers to their many questions would have to wait untl they reached the tribe.

* * *

The previous day's rain had lasted until midnight, and in the morning when Luigi looked out of the window, he could see earthworms all over the soggy ground. He'd spent the night in the same hut as Emmy, and Luigi had hardly slept at all that night, what with the constant rain and having to sleep in a hammock. 

Luigi looked down below him. His hammock was situated above Emmy's hammock, and he wondered how he would get down. He knew if he sat on the edge, he would fall straight down, so he sat up, found his balance, and then leapt flawlessly to the ground. He looked at Emmy, who had a rather large drool spot next to her open mouth and had her arm hanging lazily off the hammock, laughed silently, and left the hut.

He began walking around aimlessly, examining the huts that were beautifully crafted and the busy work of all the tribe people. Three were lighting a fire in the giant fire pit, while others were coming back with giant slabs of meat or baskets of berries and leaves. He kept walking further and noticed a pen with five yak-looking creatures.

Seeing Lucas out of the corner of his eyes, Luigi ran over to him. "Lucas!" he called out. Lucas turned around and walked towards him. "Sorry, Luigi," he said. "I would show you around some more, but I need to go keep watch with the troops. We got word of two people nearing the village. Is Emmy up yet?"

Luigi shook his head. "No, I should go see if she is, though."

Lucas smiled. "Wake her up if you have to. I'll see you around. Maybe later we can all play a game of strikers?"

Luigi nodded. "Sounds like fun!" He then raced off, slightly lost, back to Emmy's hut. He stopped in his tracks as he realized something… two people nearing the village? Mario and Peach!

He ran back to go find Lucas, but he was already out of sight.

"You okay, Weegie?"

Luigi turned around to see Emmy standing in front of him, her hair disheveled and her face red from where she hd been sleeping. "Weegie? How do you know that's my nickname?"

"You said it when you celebrated on the shuttle," Emmy said, smiling with the memory of that day. "Is it okay if I call you that?"

Luigi shrugged. No one but his brother and him called him that. "I guess it's okay," he told Emmy. "Listen, apparently two people were spotted outside the tribe. I think it might be Mario and Peach. Lucas said—"

Emmy waved a hand. "They'll be fine. With the rain and the secret way and all, the Rosie should get them here by nightfall. It won't be awhile. C'mon, let's go find Lucas and tell him to stop with his warrior duties. We have a game of strikers to play!"

The two set off towards the front part of the village, where Luigi and Emmy had fought Lucas. A question entered Luigi's mind, and he asked, "How come you all speak the same language as us? I mean, well… during the battle with Lucas I noticed the chief said something in a different language and all…"

"Why do we talk like you and have some of the same activities as you?" Emmy asked, smiling. Luigi nodded, and Emmy continued, "Well we did use to have our own language, about 300 or so years ago, until a group of scholarly toads from your lands came here and taught us their language. Suddenly it all just kind of caught on. They taught us strikers, chess, checkers, and a whole bunch of other stuff. The old language, as we call it, is pretty much dead now. No one speaks it. As for the battle, since that was a ritual, we kept those words. Answer your question?"

Luigi nodded, and then quickened their pace until they ran into Chief Sandro. "Greetings, Emmy and… sorry. I seem to have forgotten your name."

Emmy turned her face away from Sandro as Luigi replied.

"Oh, my apologies Luigi. And where are you two going?"

Emmy said, "We're going to go see what Lucas is up to. We want to play a game of strikers with him."

Sandro looked conspicuously at Emmy. "Fine. Those two slow travelers won't be here for a while. And also, you haven't happened to see a Rosie anywhere, have you? She's been missing for almost a week."

"Nope," Emmy replied quickly. "Haven't seen a thing."

"Hmm," the young chief replied, and then walked away. Luigi looked at Emmy's face and swore he saw a smile of hatred and laughter.


	12. Exiled

**This chapter is long! Yay! What will happen when Mario and Luigi see each other again? o.0**

**To Torta della pizza, I didn't mean for the storm in the previous chapter to be electrical. I'll go back and clear that up. Also, for all returning readers, if you haven't seen yet, I made changes to Mario's dream in the first chapter. It won't come up much in this chapter, but it's important in the next one. **

* * *

"Alright, the object of the game is simple," a man from the tribe explained on the field. Luigi, Lucas, Emmy, a girl who had been quickly introduced to him as Tia, and five other people of whom he had no idea were the names of, stood in a line all facing the man explaining the rules. The field looked almost exactly like a soccer field, except there were nets hanging from trees instead of goals. The ball was almost half the size of Luigi as well, and was very bouncy. Luigi assumed there were no goalies.

"You must use your bodies and feet. There are no fouls. Get the ball in the hoop and you score a point. Simple. Everyone divide into teams. Lucas and Janelle, you're captains."

The man returned to the line and Lucas and Janelle stepped forward. Lucas went first. "Emmy."

Emmy rolled her eyes, and walked over to join Lucas's team.

Janelle scanned her eyes through the crowd and then pointed timidly at Luigi. "You, green guy. What's your name? You're on my team."

Luigi ran over and joined Janelle's team and watched as Emmy mouthed, "It's on!" to him. Luigi returned the comment with a friendly yet competitive expression.

The teams were then picked. Lucas, Emmy, a short guy named Kavu, a tall girl name Sara, and an average looking guy name Echo were all on one team, with Janelle, Luigi, Tia, a girl named Talon, and a guy named Mark on the other team.

The ball was placed in the middle of the field, and Luigi and Kavu faced off for the ball.

"Uta, ai!"

The game began and Luigi ran towards the ball, knocking the short Kavu over and running with the ball. Lucas came out of no where and body-slammed him to the ground, causing the ball to be overturned. Luigi jumped to his feet, and watched as Lucas kicked the ball into the air, and then scored it in the net.

His team celebrated, and Luigi noticed that Emmy had positioned herself as far away from the action as possible. "I'm terrible at strikers," she said to Luigi, running past him. The ball was tossed back into the game, and Janelle kicked the ball over everyone's heads and to Luigi, who was alone on the other side of the field. He ran quickly with the ball, and scored.

"Nice one!" he heard, as the ball was thrown back into the game. The game continued on, with Luigi, Talon, and Sara as the top scorers.

They continued to play until near nightfall, and near the end of the game Lucas ran over to Emmy, who'd been more of an impediment to the team than a help.

"Use your Lota powers, okay?" Lucas asked her.

"What? No, I can't do that. That would be cheating!"

"There's nothing in the rules that say you can't."

Emmy came up with another excuse. "I don't know if I'm strong enough for that right now. I'm pretty beat…"

"C'mon Emmy, just do it!" Lucas ran off towards the ball and Emmy jogged after him. Lucas gained control of the ball, and then yelled to Emmy, who was near the scoring net. "Now, Emmy!"

The ball flew over towards Emmy, and Luigi noticed the deep concentration she had as a glowing bubble appeared around the ball. She swung it over towards the net and then let it fly over towards the hoop.

The goal was good.

But Emmy was not. She smiled at her success, and then, with her eyes rolling back into her head, she fainted.

"Emmy!" came the screams of nine people as they rushed towards her. Talon was the first one to reach her, and Lucas and Luigi were there in a split-second.

"Wake up, Emmy," Talon said, holding her head in her hands. She looked up at Lucas. "We need to go get someone."

Lucas nodded, just as Emmy came to. "What… happened?"

"Oh, you're alright!" Lucas said with relief. "How do you feel?"

"Did I make… the goal?"

Lucas laughed. "Yes, you did. How do you feel?"

"I feel… tingly. I need the rest… of my power stars. Luigi, can you go get them for me? They're in containers… in the hut. Luigi, you're one of the best striker players I've ever seen." The others nodded and agreed with Emmy, and Luigi was slightly embarrassed. Emmy attempted to get up, but Luigi and Talon held her down.

"Don't move," Luigi said. "I'll be right back." Luigi ran off from the field and towards Emmy's hut.

As Luigi made his way off the field and towards the hut, he noticed Chief Sandro making his way through the village like a bullet bill, several others behind him. He saw Luigi and made his way towards him. "Where is Lucas?" he asked urgently.

"On the field," Luigi said, and without a second of hesitation Chief Sandro had passed him and was walking towards the field. Luigi kept a steady pace behind the group, forgetting about the power stars for the moment.

When he reached the field he saw Emmy standing upright on her own, but swaying just a little, and Lucas standing at attention.

"Warrior Lucas!" Chief Sandro said to Lucas. "Our visitors have arrived. You must come at once."

Lucas began to run off, and Emmy walked after him. "I'm coming too," she said.

"No, Emmy," Lucas said.

"I know the people you're going to fight and I need them to get through."

Lucas stopped walking and said to Emmy, "You want to fight?" Emmy opened her mouth in shock at the question, but then nodded her head.

Chief Sandro had noticed their exchange of words and was now facing the two. Lucas bowed to his chief and then announced, "I refuse to fight, Chief Sandro. As warrior of this great tribe I would like to recommend another, more able, fighter."

Sandro raised his eyebrows. "Emmy?"

"You saw how easily she beat me. She would be more able to defend our land." Luigi realized that Sandro did have a point, but his brother and the princess were in danger if Emmy fought them.

"Very well," Sandro said with disgust in his words.

"Emmy…" Luigi said. "Are you really going to fight Mario and Peach?!"

Emmy nodded. "I'm a little tired, but once I get my hands on the rest of my power stars I'll be fine." She noticed his expression. "Oh, you're worried about them. Luigi, I won't hurt them."

Emmy, Lucas and Sandro all began to walk away towards the hut where Emmy's power stars were, and Luigi kept pace with Emmy. "I can come with you, right?" he asked desperately.

She shook her head. "No. You need to stay behind."

They left Luigi behind, and frustrated, he walked to the edge of the village, hoping to come up with a plan to see his brother.

* * *

"We wait here!" Rosie chirped, perching on a branch. "You fight Macachi now."

Soundlessly, from the trees in front of Mario and Peach came a man dressed in a tribal outfit. Blue markings on his cheeks and an ornate headdress, Mario guessed he was the leader of Emmy's tribe. "Sandro!" Rosie exclaimed as she flew off the branch and onto Sandro's shoulder. He petted the bird, which cooed in return, and Mario and Peach suddenly felt betrayed by the little bird.

"Greetings, visitors," he said, several other less decorated tribal men stepping out from behind him. "My name is Chief Sandro. This is the Macachi Valley. In order for you to pass you must beat my warrior."

"I'm looking for my brother—" Mario began to say, but he was silenced.

"Lucas!" the chief said, and a man with dark hair and red markings similar to Emmy's stepped out from the trees.

"This is my warrior," Sandro said. "However, by his discretion, you will not be fighting him. You will be fighting someone else. Step out, please."

Mario's eyes widened as Emmy stepped out from the trees besides Lucas. He tensed, anxious for his brother and eager to go find him.

"You will fight her, both of you, one at a time," Sandro said. "Now, prepare to fight."

Emmy walked forward and extended her hand peacefully. Mario told Peach that he would fight first, and then stepped up to Emmy.

They shook hands. "Your brother is fine," Emmy said.

"How can I believe you?" Mario asked, still shaking her hand.

"You have no choice but to," Emmy said, dropping his hand and walking away. Mario suddenly realized what to do, and he walked, turned and bowed.

"Uta, ai!" Sandro yelled, and Mario interpreted it as the start of the fight.

Neither fighter moved. Both were studying each other, anticipating the moves they would like make. In truth, however, neither was sure how to fight the other.

A pair of watchful blue eyes peered at the two fighters from behind a shaded tree, and watched as they finally rushed to meet the other, Mario with his hammer held high and Emmy with a power star at the ready.

Mario swung his hammer, but Emmy put a bubble around it and threw it to the side. Mario was now weaponless.

The mouth that belonged to the pair of blue eyes spoke softly, "Use your fire, Mario…"

As if Mario had heard him, he concentrated and within moments a red burning fire was brimming in his hands. Emmy saw this and quickly tackled him to the ground, dousing the fire in his hands by grabbing them and shoving them onto the ground.

"You have power stars, right?" Emmy asked so quietly in Mario's ear.

"So?" Mario said.

"So you have a weapon against me," Emmy said back, leaping up and releasing Mario. Mario jumped up as soon as he could and realized the look in Emmy's eyes. For a reason he couldn't figure out, he had a feeling that Emmy was trying desperately to get Mario to beat her. Mario ran over and quickly picked up his hammer.

Emmy attacked with her power stars, and Mario was thrown against the trunk of a tree. He forced himself to fight through the pain and he staggered back to his feet. He held his hammer high, and after a few more of Emmy's standard power star attacks, Mario found her pattern and worked his way through it; consistently dodging her every move.

It was then that he noticed her strength was weakening with every attack, and that he figured out the weapon he needed to defeat her. Toadsworth had given them a container for the one power star left in the castle. He'd said it was resistant to the powers of a Lota.

"Peach!" he yelled, dodging another, slightly weaker attack. "Throw me the container that has the power stars in it. Quick!"

As Mario ran from another attack, Peach ran over to the pack and rummaged through it. She found the silver container and waited for a good opportunity to throw it to him. She threw it, and Emmy and Mario both watched as it flew in the air.

Just as Mario was about to catch the container, he noticed, through the blanket of green, a trademark green hat pop up. "Luigi!" he yelled as he saw his little brother's cap. He lost focus, and the container fell to the ground, just short of Mario's hands. Emmy took the opportunity and tried to put a power star bubble around it. It popped instantly. She tried and tried again, but was constantly met with the same results. Smiling at his good fortune, Mario picked up the silver container, and knew it was his only weapon needed if he was going to beat Emmy. Her powers were useless against the container, and she knew it.

Emmy looked back at the green hat that had popped up and then yelled to Lucas, "Lucas, find Luigi!"

Luigi jumped out of his hiding spot, and holding on to his cap, he began to run off away from the fight and Lucas, with a backwards glance at his brother.

Mario looked longingly at his brother, but he knew he had a fight to win. He threw the container up in the air, and similar to a tennis ball, he hit it with his hammer, aiming straight for Emmy. Trying desparately to avoid the attack, Emmy put up a force field. The container passed right through it as if there was nothing there, and hit Emmy in the jaw. She fell backwards but then got up quickly, shuffling away from the container. Mario paused, giving his enemy a fair chance to surrender.

Emmy stood still, staring at Mario, the hostility gone from her eyes. She sighed heavily, and then bowed, admitting defeat. Mario bowed likewise, and then waited for something to happen.

Meanwhile, Luigi was being chased down by Lucas in some part of the forest, and Mario could hear his screams. Suddenly Luigi burst through the foliage and nearly avoided running into Emmy. Chaos ensued after that. Peach and Mario both made a run at Luigi and Lucas, while Luigi tried to find a way to leave. Chief Sandro watched with panicked eyes, as did his tribesmen.

"Enough!" Emmy shouted, and a second later, Mario, Peach and Luigi were in their own power star bubbles.

"Mario!"

"Luigi!"

The brothers began to yell at each other. Luigi's bubble popped, but Emmy grabbed onto his arm and began to drag him away. Luigi shoved Emmy aside and began to run towards Mario and Peach.

"We're leaving!" Emmy shouted, and then put Luigi in a bubble as she walked over to Sandro. She bowed quickly to him. "I'm sorry about this, gracious Chief Sandro, but things seem to have gotten a little out of hand."

"A little?!" Sandro exclaimed, on edge. "Who are these people? Explain yourself right now! Lucas, I will have some of my best men come out and help you contain these two intruders while Emmy, Luigi, and I talk."

The tribesmen and Lucas circled around Peach and Mario, and once they were released from their bubbles, they formed a tight circle around them, making it impossible to get away.

"Weegie!" Mario called out as he watched his brother disappear with his enemy into the trees.

* * *

Luigi felt ready to burst with rage when he was finally released from his bubble. He turned his back on Emmy and made a run a run away from the village and back to where his brother was. His frustration increased when he was then put back in the bubble, and he floated back to the hut where Emmy and Sandro were now entering.

As Emmy and Sandro sat down in the hut, Luigi closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened his eyes, his feet were back on the ground and Emmy was guarding the door.

"Will you behave now, Luigi?" Sandro asked, sounding deeply annoyed. Luigi nodded, and sat down, Emmy joining him, her jaw clenched.

"I was foolish to not ask where you were from, Luigi. You're obviously one not to be trusted. Who are you?"

Sandro stared intensely at Luigi, waiting for his answer.

"My name is Luigi and I come from the Mushroom Kingdom. I was…" Luigi stopped glancing over at Emmy, who purposefully kept her mouth shut, fearing for what her chief might do to her if Sandro knew the truth. Luigi quickly changed his story for Emmy's benefit. She might be his enemy—an odd one at that—but he couldn't ruin her life here. "I met Emmy about a year ago. We're good friends."

Emmy's eyes widened in disbelief. "Well?" Chief Sandro asked. "Who were those people that we encountered back there?"

"That was my brother, Mario," Luigi explained. "And Princess Peach, the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom."

Chief Sandro looked out the window, as if trying to come up with another question. "Why, then, did all of that happen?"

"It's my fault, chief," Emmy began to explain, but Sandro stopped her. "I would like Luigi to explain, please."

Luigi was at a loss for words. Sandro looked at him conspicuously, and Luigi began to say whatever was on his mind. "Well, see I haven't seen my brother for a long time, and I was worried about what would happen when he fought Emmy." At this point, Emmy buried her face in her hands, hiding her expression. "I decided that I would watch the fight, but I was worried that I wasn't allowed to, so I hid in the bushes, and then I lost my cover. Emmy didn't want an overreaction from Mario, neither did I, of course, so she told Lucas to chase after me. I then ran and then I got lost and ended back up where the battle was taking place. And then the rest of it happened."

There was a long minute of silence after Luigi finished, and Emmy was now staring at him in astonishment. Sandro had his same annoyed face, but he stood up and bowed; Emmy and Luigi quickly did the same.

Emmy spoke quickly after that, no doubt wanting to be away from Chief Sandro's arrogant presence. "Luigi and I will be leaving now. We are headed towards the Coha desert."

Sandro nodded, a slight smile lingering on his face. "That's very well," he said. "But you must be aware, Emmy, that you may not return here ever again."

Luigi's jaw dropped. Surely Chief Sandro wasn't that mean?

"I'm… I'm sorry," Emmy said. "I'm not quite sure I understand…"

"You may return to the jungle, but if you leave now, if even you manage to defeat our warrior, you will never be accepted back into our tribe."

Luigi looked at Emmy and noticed her eyes were beginning to water. She couldn't speak, so instead she turned around, and grabbing Luigi's hand, they left. Once they were outside and out of earshot from Chief Sandro, Emmy let lose her anger on Luigi.

"I can't believe him!" she exclaimed, walking towards her hut. "Why… I can't be exiled! That's not fair!" Emmy fell down to the ground and buried her face in her hands. Some of the tribal people noticed, but kept on walking. Luigi sat down next to her, but was unsure about what to say to comfort her.

She wiped her face and sat there, staring down at the dirt and grabbing some, letting it run through her fingers. Luigi heard footsteps behind him, and turned around to see Lucas.

"Emmy?" he asked, squatting down next to his friend, "What is it?"

"I have to leave," she told him. "You know that, right?"

Lucas sat down. "I know that. We got Mario and Peach all situated. They won't be getting away." He looked over at Luigi. "Is Mario your brother?" Luigi nodded, and Lucas continued. "I noticed the resemblance. What happened in there, Emmy?"

"Luigi covered for us. If he'd told the truth," she said, looking Luigi in the eye. "Then I would have been banished. But Sandro is…" she pounded her fist onto the dirt. "Sandro is so wrapped up… he's power tripping is what he is. It's all gone to his head. I'm sorry Lucas about what I said before. I hope you overthrow Sandro. I hope…" she abandoned her thought and jumped up. Lucas and Luigi jumped up after her, and Emmy turned around, and looked into Lucas's eyes. "Luigi and I need to leave now. When I mean now, right now. We're leaving right now."

"Oh, what? Don't you want to stay longer?"

Emmy shook her head. "Things have gotten too complicated. We're going to the Coha Desert. Our shuttle needs fuel."

Lucas looked disappointed, but he knew that Emmy had to leave. "Do you want help getting back to your shuttle?"

Emmy shook her head. "We can make it fine. By the way, is the Rosie working against Sandro? When we saw her, she listened to my orders without hesitation."

Lucas nodded. "Even she's aware of what's going on. I'm telling you Emmy, no one here really cares for Sandro's leadership."

Emmy smiled. "When I come back with my parents, you better be chief."

Emmy and Luigi then said their goodbyes to Lucas, and after gathering all their things, they made their way out of the tribe, Luigi still holding onto the hope that he might see his brother again.

"You're a good person," Emmy told Luigi as they walked. "What you did back there was really nice. You didn't have to do that. You don't deserve to be treated as badly as I treat you."

Luigi sighed. "You're not as mean as you think you are," he said. "Besides, its not as if what I said made a difference. You still got exiled."

Unexpectedly, Emmy hugged Luigi. "I don't care; you're still one of the nicest people I'll ever meet."


	13. The Coha Desert

**Sadly, this is going to be the last chapter you see from me for a couple of weeks! I'll be on vacation in New York for a week. **

**Enjoy!**

* * *

"I am Princess Toadstool, of the Mushroom Kingdom!" Peach yelled at the tribesmen. "Release us at this instant!" As if at her request, the circle of tribesmen opened and an old man was standing there, with green markings on his cheeks.

"I am very sorry for this misunderstanding princess," the old man said, leaning on an old stick. "We usually treat our guests with more respect. Forgive me for not introducing myself, I am Advisor Ola, Chief Sandro's first advisor. Chief Sandro is busy with other things right now, so I will be helping you."

"Where is my brother, Luigi?" Mario demanded, stepping out from the circle. "No one will let me see him."

"I'm just as confused as you are, Mr. Mario. Emmy, the one your brother is with, has left. I'm very sorry that you can not see him. However, we heard from one villager that the two are going to the Coha desert, where the Coha tribe lives. It is just northeast of the jungle, outside the gorge."

"Thank you very much, Ola," Peach said. "There's something else we'd like to ask you about."

"There is?" Mario asked.

"Mario, tell them the dream you had." Ola nodded for Mario to begin.

"I had this dream, about a week ago," Mario began, even though it felt odd for him to explain a dream to someone he had never met before. "I was flying over the earth, and then suddenly I was in this very jungle. There was the beast coming through in the trees, and the trees were falling. An old man dressed almost the same as Chief Sandro, went into a hut were a little girl and her mother and father were. He told the parents that the time had come, and he took the little girl with him. Everyone left the village except for the girl's parents. That's were my dream ends. I'm not quite sure what it means."

Ola nodded, and spoke. "This dream… Well, let me begin by saying something else. When people in our tribe die, our belief is that they have the ability to send out messages when they die to people who are still living. Our chief died about two weeks ago. If you had this dream awhile after our chief died, then I can only guess that he sent this dream to you. There is something in it that Chief Micah wants you to know. However, in our tribe, dreams are also to never be discussed. The events you described did happen, but those events are of the unspeakable. We never talk about what happened that day. I cannot help you."

"That's okay," Peach said, trying to sound cheerful.

"If you wish for help to the Coha desert, then I will send one of my men with you." Ola then called one of the tribesmen already there, a short skinny man with wide eyes. "This is Del. He's been outside the gorge a couple of times. He will be able, with your help, to move the boulder blocking the northern passageway."

Del stepped forward and bowed to Peach and Mario. "My apologies, Princess Toadstool and Mario. I hope I can assist you to the Coha Desert."

Unsure of what else to do, Mario and Peach bowed to Del and Ola. Ola bowed in return, and after wishing them a safe journey, he and his other men left, leaving Del with Mario and the princess.

"We should get moving," Del said, walking west to head around the village.

* * *

Luigi had refused to behave on the way back to the shuttle, and now he was paying for it by being in the bubble once again. Emmy's chin was becoming more bruised by the second, swelling up almost to the size of her fist. 

"I promise I won't run away," Luigi pleaded again, seeing the strain it took for Emmy use her powers. Emmy looked at him, tired and out of place, and she released him. Luigi stayed put.

"If you don't run away, then I promise that you'll see your brother again, okay?" Emmy said, continuing to walk forward. "And why are you being so nice to me? Shouldn't you hate my guts by now?"

Luigi shrugged, and decided to keep his promise for the time being. "You're saying I should be mean? That's the thing about me and Mario, we're nice people trying to help other nice people. We just want what's best for everyone."

"And what's best for me?" Emmy said with a slight smirk, challenging Luigi.

"Well, I think what's best for you is… I think you should find your parents. Whoever has them, and don't tell me Mario has them because I know that's not the truth, should give them back to you. It's not fair to never see your parents…"

Emmy sensed some disappointment in his voice and asked, "What about you and your parents?"

"Oh, I…I don't like to talk about that much…." His voice trailed off and the two kept their silence on their way back to the southern passageway where their shuttle waited.

Del walked along the wall of the gorge, feeling the rock for an opening. His arms went through, and he pulled away some vines to reveal a small passageway. He held his torch inside the small cave and then motioned for Peach and Mario who followed him inside.

It was near midnight by now, and Del had refused to stop. He had said that it was easier to go in the passageway at night. The two foreigners had no choice but to trust him. Del leaned his torch against the rock and then grabbed onto the boulder. "It will slide to the right," he said. "Help me roll it."

Mario and Peach both grabbed onto the boulder and began to push. Slowly the boulder began to shift, and it rolled over to the right just slightly, enough for them to pass. "We'll leave it open," Del said, picking up his torch again and squeezing through the small space. "Follow me. We can't slow down now."

Not one for words, Del took off and stopped a ways, allowing Mario and Peach to follow. They walked on in silence, tired and slightly hungry, all of them wishing desperately to get out of the narrows tunnel and into the moonlight.

It was morning when Emmy woke up in the shuttle. The journey last night had been long and tiring, but it was worth it to sleep in a nice bed.

She looked at Luigi who was still sound asleep and she tiptoed over to the control panel, where a red light was flashing. She took one last look at Luigi and then flipped a switch, which stopped the flashing red light and turned on the screen. Bowser's face popped up on the screen, and he began to yell at her.

"Where have you been?" he demanded, and Emmy cupped the speakers with her hands to prevent Luigi from waking up. "I've been trying to reach you. Where are you?"

"Quiet, Luigi's asleep," Emmy said. "I'm in the Macachi jungle. I'm on my way to the Coha desert. Mario and Peach are on their way." Realizing her mistake, Emmy put her hands over her mouth.

"Peach?" Bowser asked. "Why is Peach with Mario?!"

"I… I… well, you see, I had no control over that…" Emmy was extremely nervous at this point, and she jumped in her seat when she heard behind her, "Emmy?"

She jumped out of her chair and ran over to where a not-quite-awake Luigi was standing. She grabbed his arm, opened the shuttle door and shoved him outside. "I'll let you in later!" she yelled at him. Running back over the control panel, she noticed that Bowser looked very annoyed.

"You need to hurry up!" Bowser yelled at her. "And now that I think about it, make sure both Mario AND Peach get here in one piece. Finally, they will _ALL_ be mine!"

Emmy smiled shyly. "Well, I should get going. I will talk to you later." Bowser nodded, and she turned off the screen as quickly as she could.

"Let me in!"

Luigi was now pounding on the door, for Emmy to let him in. The shuttle door then opened and Emmy popped her head out, smiling. "Sorry," she apologized. "Um, something happened. You're such a nice prisoner. You didn't run away!"

Luigi raised his eyebrows. Emmy was acting different, somehow, he noticed. She seemed to be masking something that she didn't want Luigi to know. He walked back into the shuttle and once inside Emmy immediately began to lift it off the ground, and fly it northeast towards their destination: the Coha desert.

* * *

"Look!" Del said, pointed into the sky. A gleaming silver shuttle was flying overhead, and heading the same direction as they were. "She is flying a shuttle… how odd." 

"Why is that odd?" Peach asked.

"Well," Del began to explain. "The shuttle is not something we use. They are used by the Cohas. I can only guess Emmy got hers from there. However, right now we are not at peace with the Cohas. They may refuse her to stay there, as well as us. We must be on our toes."

"Why are they at war with you?" Mario asked.

Del sighed. "There are so many things you do not know. But I would be pleased to tell them to you. The Cohas and us were once one tribe. We lived peacefully in the jungle together, back in the gorge, but there was a time that a chief came to power that many did not like. Our chiefs have always been either the son or daughter of the past chief. They must have some relation.

"This chief was so disliked that a man named Tocha who rebelled along with what seemed like almost half the tribe. He tried to overthrow the chief, and he and his followers were exiled from the jungle altogether. So the only place they went was the desert. They made up their own name, Coha, which is derived from Tocha's name. They still use part of our jungle, for it is the only way for them to survive, but they are not allowed to cross the line. Neither are we.

"Our past chief, Micah, worked very hard to establish peace with them, however, our current chief, his son, has ruined that peace and taken back the jungle from the Cohas. Any Coha now caught within reach of the jungle will be punished. No one ever leaves the gorge except for the watchers, and even they don't leave often enough to check our borders, so we don't know what the Cohas are doing at this point."

Del stopped in his tracks and looked dead ahead.

"This is the line. Walk forward, you will see it." Mario and Peach then stepped gingerly forward, and suddenly they were standing on the edge of the jungle and looking out on the barren land that was the Coha desert.

"Del, where is the Coha tribe from here?" Peach asked, her umbrella already out to mask her face from the hot sun. There was no answer but the rustling of trees.

"Del?" Peach and Mario walked back to were Del had been, but he had already taken off and left.

* * *

When Luigi stepped out of the shuttle after they had landed in the barren desert, he was met with the tip of a spear. 

"And who might you be?" the man holding the spear asked. Luigi held up his hands and Emmy stepped out behind him. She bowed and then Luigi did the same, but the man held fast to his spear.

"Why are you here?" he asked.

"Don't you remember me?" Emmy asked.

The man set his spear on the ground. He had tan skin and most of his face was covered with fabric, and his clothes were draped on him. "Of course I remember you. You're the one who stole our shuttle." He lifted his spear, and then cried out, "Intruder from the Macachis!"

Suddenly the ground beneath their feet began to shake, and as if they had formed out of the earth itself, Cohas began to rise from the ground and surround Emmy, Luigi and the shuttle.

"This is a misunderstanding," Emmy said, her voice shaking. "I didn't steal this shuttle from you. I bought it."

A man stepped forward, and uncovered his face. "You stole our shuttle, you Macachi traitor! It was an agreement we made. You bought the shuttle for one year. After one year you had to bring the shuttle back. Did you? No!"

"I bought this shuttle fair and square, Gatz," Emmy said. "You said it was mine to keep. Now I'm here to refuel. I have money for that. Let me pay you and then I'll leave."

Gatz shook his head in disappointment. "Sandro sent you here, didn't he? He sent you because he knew you were kind to us once. We're not falling for your tricks."

Luigi could see the desperation in her eyes as she pleaded. "You don't understand. I'm not living with the Macachis anymore! I'm not working for Sandro."

"Take them to the pits," Gatz said, and suddenly Luigi and Emmy were being surrounded by the Cohas, separated from the shuttle.

"He's innocent!" Emmy cried out as they grabbed on to Luigi. "He's done nothing wrong!"

"He's with you," Gatz said as if that was crime enough, and he walked away. Emmy and Luigi were slowly taken from the shuttle, fighting every step of the way. They were taken to a place in the ground where steps were formed, and they led them down the steps into the cool ground, where torches were on the walls, lighting the way. By this point Emmy and Luigi had given up fighting and were taken to a place were jail cells had been carved from rock. They were shoved inside, and the hard metal doors were closed on them.

"You can't do this!" Emmy said, but it was no use, the Cohas had already walked off.

"Where are you from?" a soft voice from the corner said. Luigi and Emmy turned around to see a gaunt frame sitting with her legs tucked into her in the corner. The light from the torches flickered off her face, giving her a grim impression. "I said, where are you from?"

"I… Well, I'm from the Macachi Jungle. My name is Emmy." Emmy said.

"I'm from the Mushroom Kingdom. My name is Luigi." Luigi said.

"Never heard of the Mushroom Kingdom. As for you, Emmy, are you that girl who's parents were kidnapped? The one with the Lota powers?"

"Why?" Emmy asked harshly, then slowly answered as she sat down next to Luigi, "Yeah, that's me. What about you? Where are you from?"

"My name is Cal. I'm from north of the fuzzy forest. Up in the cold tundra. I don't live there anymore. But my life is boring. What are you two in here for? Did you steal from them? They're quite pesky about their things."

"We didn't do anything wrong. Or at least Luigi didn't do anything wrong. I came to the Coha desert about two years ago and bought a shuttle from them. They seem to think that I only borrowed the shuttle for a year. But I paid them in full."

Cal laughed. "Yeah, people like this will do that to you. Especially if you're a Macachi. They come down here every day grumbling about you people in the jungle."

"You people?" Emmy asked bitterly.

"Jungle people, desert people… I really don't care about any of you." Cal then turned away from them and began to fake sleeping.

Emmy sighed and turned to Luigi. "Well, at least we're not dead," she said, trying to sound optimistic.

"Are we going to get out?" Luigi asked.

"I doubt it," Cal said, her eyes still closed. "I've been in here for over a month. The food never gets better and you stay in the same room. It's quite entertaining."

"Mario and Peach are coming," Emmy said. "Someone should have seen our shuttle fly over. They have to know by now. If not then we're stuck here."

"What what now?" Cal said, opening her eyes. "Someone is coming to get us out?"

"My brother, Mario," Luigi said. "And Princess Peach of the Mushroom Kingdom. They should be on their way according to Emmy."

"Two people?" Cal exclaimed, almost laughing. "They're not going to get us out of here. Even if one of them _is _royalty! Besides, they wouldn't know that the Cohas live underground! No one hardly knows that!"

"But they'll see my shuttle," Emmy said. "They'll see my shuttle and they should know. If not, then we're trapped here for a very long time."


	14. The Truth

**Ok, so I'm still in NYC, but I managed to churn this out on the plane. Clouds are so inspiring!� They're like a mountain/toasted marshmallow/forest! **

**This city is amazing! There's even a Nintendo store here, so I got a hoodie with Mario and Luigi running from a bomb-omb! It was too cute to resist!**

**Anyways, BIG plot twist in this one. This chapter has the same events twice with two different perspectives. Mario and Peach's perspective and then Emmy and Luigi's perspective. **

**Another thing, sorry for the ranting ;) I tend to come up with a really good idea in my head, but I when I put it down on paper or whatever and it sometimes come out as confusing mush. So tell me if anything is confusing, and enjoy!**

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As soon as they could see the shuttle, Mario and Peach raced towards it, not even caring anymore about the blazing heat. Once they reached it, they noticed that there was no one around.

"Luigi!" Mario called out to his brother. He ran over to the shuttle and peered inside. "There's no one in here. But where's the tribe?"

"Hmm," Peach thought, "I don't know. There's nothing out here but flat land." Mario and Peach then left the shuttle and continued on, until Mario fell down into the ground.

"Mario!" Peach exclaimed, and then saw that the hole that Mario had fallen into was really just a staircase that led into the ground. Mario climbed out of the hole and then stared in terror past Peach.

"Peach, turn around, very slowly," he said. Peach swung around quickly and saw a giant horse behind her, with shaggy hair that looked like a dogs, and fur the color of the desert.

"Not there!" the shaggy horse said, trotting up to them. Her voice had a feminine air to it, and she acted friendly to the two. "What are you doing out in the desert anyway?"

"Uh… we're looking for a friend," Peach said.

"Oh! Did the Cohas take your friend? I can help you! My name is Sundance."

"Yes, the Cohas took my brother, Luigi," Mario said. "Did you see him at all? He looks like me, but he wears green instead of red."

Sundance tilted her head. "I can't say I've seen him. But the Cohas take all their prisoners to the same place. I'll show you! Follow me!" The shaggy haired horse then trotted away, and Mario and Peach followed, once again slightly confused. The horse led them over to where a hole was in the ground, looking very similar to the one before that Mario had fallen in with steps leading down.

"Is this where they are?" Mario asked, but Sundance quickly said, "Not now, someone is coming. Turn around!" The horse then turned around, whinnied, and rose up on her back feet. Mario and Peach saw what she was looking at: four angry Cohas holding spears. Cloth covered their faces and they had long fabric clothes. Sundance ran off without an explanation, leaving Mario and Peach to deal with the four.

"State your names!" one of them yelled, stepping forward. Mario and the princess introduced themselves and where they came from. "Royalty from the Mushroom Kingdom," the one said, bowing. "It is a pleasure to meet your princess. I am Gatz, and I am leader of the Coha tribe. What brings you out here?"

"I've come looking for my brother," Mario said. "Where is he?"

"What?" Gatz asked. "Is your brother the man in green? Well, then! I'm very sorry about what has happened. But he was with one of our enemies, so that too makes him an enemy."

"He was kidnapped by a girl named Emmy!" Peach exclaimed. "He's her prisoner, that doesn't make him your enemy."

Gatz shrugged. "He didn't act like he didn't want to be there. So I'm assuming that he was on her side."

"Please, just give me my brother and we'll leave," Mario pleaded, but Gatz was not going to let that happen.

"I'm afraid that if you want your brother you'll…what's that sound?" Gatz and the other Cohas then looked around, and Mario and Peach then also heard the nose. It was the sound of neighing and of hooves. Off in the distance Mario looked and saw a whole herd of shaggy horses; Sundance at their lead. They made their way over to the Cohas and Mario and Peach.

"If these Cohas give you trouble then we'll fight with you," Sundance said. "They've been giving us trouble with our food."

Gatz, even though he had noticed the arrival of the horses, yelled, "Intruders!" and charged. Cohas came from the holes in the ground and rushed out, spears ready. Sundance and the horses charged along with Mario and Peach. While the other horses continued to charge into the battle, which had turned into more of a battle between the Cohas and the horses, Sundance stopped in front of Mario and Peach, blocking their way.

"We need to go to where the prisoners are so you can save your brother. Quick, hop on my back." Mario and Peach, with some slight difficulty, hopped onto Sundance's back and held onto her fur as she raced off away from the battle and towards the hole in the ground she had shown them before.

Not ready for the Sundance's sudden stop, Mario had let go and was sent flying down the stairs of the hole. "Mama mia…" he said, standing up and readjusting his red cap in the underground cavern.

"Mario!" he heard a familiar voice call out, and then ran over to the cage down the hallway, Peach slowly behind him. His brother was holding onto the bars of the cage, with Emmy and a skinny girl behind her. "You gotta get us out, big bro!"

Mario looked at the cell wildly, Peach helping him figure out how to get the prisoners out. But there were no keys that Mario could see.

"We're free!" the skinny girl exclaimed, and Emmy held out her hand to Luigi.

"Luigi!" Mario called out. "Get away from Emmy!"

"It's okay," his brother replied. "I'll explain later." Luigi took Emmy's hand and suddenly the cage door was thrown aside in a fury of gold and green.

Hurry!" Peach said, as the commotion continued up above them. "I don't think they can hold them off much longer."

Mario, Peach, and the three prisoners then ran out up the stairs to see Sundance and another gray shaggy horse next to her. "This is Nightash and I'm Sundance," Sundance said. "He's going to help me get you out of here."

"I need to stop at my shuttle first," Emmy said. "I might not be able to fly it but there are things I need to get out of it."

"Wait a minute," Mario said to Emmy. "Who said that you're coming with us?"

"Mario, she's—" Luigi tried to explain, but Mario continued, "You kidnapped my brother? Why?"

"We need to hurry! And I'm going with you," Emmy said, walking away towards Nightash. Mario cupped a fireball in his hands and sent it at Emmy, and she ducked, barely avoiding the flame.

"Stop it Mario!" Luigi said, standing in front of Emmy. "She is coming with us. She has no where else to go, and she can help us…"

"Help us!" Peach exclaimed. "Luigi, she kidnapped you!"

Luigi shook his head, and then Sundance burst in, "We need to hurry to that shuttle or we're never going to make it out of here!"

"I will explain later!" Luigi said, jumping onto Nightash after Emmy. Cal jumped up and joined them, and Mario and Peach jumped onto Sundance.

They sped off towards the shuttle, and both Emmy and Luigi noticed the harsh looks that Mario gave Emmy on the way.

_Earlier…_

"Here's your food," the Coha said, shoving a bowl of green colored paste towards the three prisoners. Luigi peered at the bowl curiously, but then turned away from the food.

"There's no way I'm eating that," he said. Emmy, however, had been brave enough to try a dip of it. She then spat it out immediately, to which Cal said, "Ain't so good, is it? That's why I never eat here. The food is terrible."

Emmy shoved the food away and then pulled her legs into her. "I'm scared they won't come," she said.

"Of course they will!" Luigi said optimistically. "Mario would never let anything bad happen to us."

"You mean to you," Emmy replied softly, then sighed. "I can't do this anymore. I'm so sorry Luigi. I need to tell you the truth."

Luigi braced himself for what Emmy was going to say.

"You see, both you and I know that Mario didn't kidnap my parents. He would never do that. It's just that…." Emmy closed her eyes, trying to think about how she should word what she was going to say. "I… It was Bowser who kidnapped my parents. Now let me explain!" she exclaimed when Luigi's jaw dropped. "It was a long time ago. I was about six at the time. Everyone in the tribe knew I was a Lota, and Chief Micah had gotten word from Didajne, our goddess, that a terrifying beast would come and take the child and use her for his own advances. Bowser was the beast and I was the child. So we made a plan. When the beast came, my parents would hand themselves over to Bowser, claiming they too had the power of the stars and he would take them. So the day came when the trees in the jungle began to fall, and I had to leave my parents forever and live with my aunt. We, our tribe,�left our jungle that day and crossed over to the Fuzzy Forest, where we lived for a year after that, just to be sure that the beast would not find us ever again."

Emmy finished, and then looked at Luigi with an apologizing expression.

"But then…" Luigi began. "Why are you doing this, then?"

She shook her head and let out a nervous laugh. "I realize now that this whole plan was stupid. You see, two years ago I left my village to find someone who would be willing to help me find my parents. I went to the Fuzzy Forest, heard about the prophecy there, then traveled to the Coha desert and got my shuttle. I traveled all over the place trying to find someone. First in the arctic north, then the arctic south, and then I found your land, and your kingdom. I began to hear all these tales about you and your brother. And you fought him! You fought Bowser, the one who had my parents and every time you won. I started to believe it was too good to be true.

"I began watching you and your brother, looking for any signs that might help me defeat Bowser. I was too nervous to just walk up and ask for your help. So I came up with a plan to get your attention. First, I stole all the power stars from the castle of the Mushroom Kingdom, with the exception of one star that I knew would help your brother. After that, I sent out a letter to you from Princess Peach, and then kidnapped you on your way to the castle.

"Don't you see? It was all just one big plan! Once we meet up with Mario and the princess, we can all go to Bowser's lair up in the northern lava, and then find my parents and seal Bowser away in the center of the universe for five years, so that just for that long he won't be able to bother anyone."

Luigi looked rather confused and slightly disappointed. "I… I had no idea. You could have asked for our help! If it's Bowser of course we'll help! Even if it wasn't Bowser we would help! That's what the Mario Bros. do! We take down the bad guys. I'm so sorry you had to go through that, Emmy.� We really would have helped you."

Suddenly, from somewhere deep in the ground, a cry was let out, and the earth began to shake. "What's happening?" Cal asked, jumping up. "Are we being rescued!" She ran over to the cell door and looked out into the hallway to see if anything was happening.

Emmy and Luigi stood up, on guard, and shouts could be heard up above, along with what sounded like horse's hooves.

"They're here!" Luigi cried out. "We're saved!"

Emmy, however, was still serious. "It might be something else. We need to wait and see what happens."

"Emmy!" Cal said, running over to her. "Can you use your star power or whatever and blast open the cell door?"

Emmy shook her head. "I only have five power stars. I don't have enough energy for that. All my other power stars are on the shuttle."

"Can you try?" she asked, but Emmy shook her head again.

A red blob then fell from the staircase from the end of the hallway. "Mama mia…" a distant voice said.

"Mario!" Luigi called out to his brother, and in an instant Mario was standing in front of the cell door. "You gotta get us out, big bro!"

Peach then appeared from the hallway as well, and her and Mario examined the cell, wondering how to get it open.

"We're free!" Cal was now exclaiming; her month of being caged up had done her in.

"I have an idea," Emmy said, offering her hand to Luigi.

"Luigi! Get away from Emmy!" Mario said.

"It's okay, Mario!" Luigi said back, taking Emmy's hand. "I'll explain later." He knew she was planning on doing. He harnessed his lightening powers, and then with a massive force, a power star lightening attack flew forward and hit the metal door of the cell off its hinges.

"Hurry!" Peach said, as the commotion continued up above them. "I don't think they can hold them off much longer."

Luigi, Emmy and Cal burst through the cell and ran after Mario and Peach up the stone stairs and out into the open, where two shaggy horses waited, one sand colored and the other gray.

"This is Nightash and I'm Sundance," the horse said. "He's going to help me get you out of here."

"I need to stop at my shuttle first," Emmy said. "I might not be able to fly it but there are things I need to get out of it."

"Wait a minute," Mario said to Emmy. "Who said that you're coming with us?"

"Mario, she's—" Luigi tried to explain, but Mario continued, "You kidnapped my brother? Why?"

"We need to hurry! And I'm going with you," Emmy said, walking away towards Nightash. Mario cupped a fireball in his hands and sent it at Emmy, and she ducked, barely avoiding the flame.

"Stop it Mario!" Luigi said, standing in front of Emmy. "She is coming with us. She has no where else to go, and she can help us…"

"Help us!" Peach exclaimed. "Luigi, she kidnapped you!"

Luigi shook his head, and then Sundance burst in, "We need to hurry to that shuttle or we're never going to make it out of here!"

"I will explain later!" Luigi said, jumping onto Nightash after Emmy. Cal jumped up and joined them, and Mario and Peach jumped onto Sundance.

They sped off towards the shuttle, and both Emmy and Luigi noticed the harsh looks that Mario gave Emmy on the way.

Emmy and Luigi jumped off of Nightash when they reached the shuttle, and entered inside. "What do we need?" Luigi asked.

"Well, I need my power stars, they're in there," she said, pointing to a cupboard. "And we should take these packs from before." She threw a pack to Luigi and then situated one on her back, while Luigi searched through the cabinets to find the power stars.

"I'm really sorry my brother's acting mean to you," Luigi said, finding a container and throwing it to Emmy. "He's just overprotective of me, since we grew up without parents. Once we explain your story to him, he'll understand."

"It's okay," Emmy said, opening the containers and letting the power stars rest above her palm. "Someone kidnapped my parents and to be honest, I'm not so happy about it either."

Nightash poked his head through the shuttle door and said to them, "There's not much time, you need to hurry. We can't hold them off much longer."

Emmy and Luigi nodded, and after putting on their packs, Emmy jumped onto Nightash with Luigi and Cal, and they set off once again to where Sundance, Mario, and Peach were waiting. Sundance and Nightash took off at a great speed that shocked all five travelers. Nightash, however, found it hard to travel with so much weight, so Luigi gave his pack to Mario, and they continued on, away from the Coha desert, away from the battle between the horses and men, and back into the jungle.


	15. To the Land of Seria

A/N: Okay, even though this chapter is so short, I kind of like it. I skipped most of the travelling part because it just seeme to boring to write about, and I'm a little short on creativity lately. For those of you who've looked at the map on my profile, I'm going to change it so that the Fuzzy Forest is not an island, but extends far nort all the way to Bowser's lair. It will all be explained. Also some very slight foreshadowing about Lotas in this one, if you manage to catch it. When it comes up again then I'll reference this chapter.

I finally put up anoter story called Defiance, and I'll be working more on that one for a little while just until I can beef it up with more chapters and get a plot going.

Read, review, and Enjoy!

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"Where will you take us?" Mario asked the horses. He had heard Emmy's story by now, and was willing to trust her for the time being. If anyone had a problem with Bowser, he would help.

"We will take you as far as you need to go," Nightash said. "We heard you were going to Bowser's lair up in the north, right? Across the world?"

"That's where he's situated himself, yes," Emmy said.

"We can take you as far north as the cold," Sundance. "After that we will have to leave you."

"Why are you helping us?" Luigi asked. "I 'm sorry, but I don't see why you would want to help us."

"Our kind has lived peacefully in the desert with the Cohas. However, time have been tough. They won't allow us access to our waters. They say they need it more than us. Our herd understands if we leave to help others. There's not much we can do about anything. And Bowser's arrival in our part of the world means trouble for all. So we will help you defeat him."

"Where are your waters?" Emmy asked. "Are they in the jungle?"

"Yes, they are, why? Do you know why the Cohas doing this?"

"They might be protecting you. Chief Sandro of the Macachi tribe has broken the peace treaty with the Cohas. He's refused to let them use their part of the jungle. Maybe Gatz is stopping you to protect you from any Macachis that might hurt you if you wander in the jungle."

"Macachis don't know about us. They don't know we can speak. Have you ever heard of us desert horses?" Emmy shook her head, "I don't know then."

The hours passed and the horses walked throughout the night, even though their human companions had wanted to stop for rest. By night, however, Sundance and Nightash's riders were asleep, with the exception of Peach, who'd found the night stars too beautiful to fall asleep.

"Emmy's story is so sad," Peach said, feeling sympathy for Emmy. "I just hope we can find Bowser and her parents. Where did you say Bowser was?"

"A place across the world," Nightash said. "He hasn't passed through this area yet. We know he is in the far north, which is too north even for the cold. They say that north of the forest and north of the glaciers and unforgiving air, there is lava as hot as the sun. Bowser is there, making his lair."

"There's lava everywhere up there," a voice said, and Peach looked over to see that Luigi was still awake, trying his best not to fall off the back of the horse. "Emmy took me there to go talk to Bowser. That's when she made the fake alliance with him."

"Luigi," Peach said. "I didn't know you were awake. Does Bowser really think that Emmy is going to help him seal Mario away in the center of the universe?"

"I hope he does. That way, when we get there, we can just walk right in, say, 'hey Bowser, I hope you don't have any plans for the next five years,' and then bam! He's gone!" Luigi fell off of Nightash and then ran to catch up with the horse.

Peach laughed, and Sundance looked back to see Luigi jump back up onto the horse.

The horses continued through the jungle for only a few more hours until they too needed to rest. Once the sun rose, however, all of the travelers were wide awake and eager to get to the far north.

"So, have any of you… uh, horses, ever been through the Fuzzy Forest?" Emmy asked. "I've only seen you in the Coha desert."

"Well, few of us have ever gone deep into the jungle besides to get our water," Sundance said.

"Then how do you know where to go?" Mario asked.

"We have something you humans don't: instinct. It will lead us north. Besides, I think I hear the ocean. Hold on!"

Sundance and Nightask took off through the jungle, their riders holding on and ducking under the low-handing branches. The trees quickly ended however, and the endless blue ocean lay out before them, the Fuzzy Forest far to the northwest.

"Do you know where to go?" Peach asked the horses, who then shook their long heads.

"There's no way we can cross the ocean!" Nightash said, trotting farther down the beach. "We might as well go back and help them get their shuttle fueled. This is no use standing down here wasting time."

"There's a way across," Peach pointed out. "A hobgoblin pointed it out to Mario and I. It's just over that way." Peach and Mario directed the two horses over to where the shallow land lie, and the horses, even with their distaste of the salty water, stepped onto the submerged land and continued across.

Mario, Luigi, Peach and Emmy decided to give the horses a break and walk alongside them in the cool water. However, the peaceful journey did not last long.

A shadow passed over Luigi, and he looked up to see a very fast moving cloud. He nudged his brother. "We have company," he told him, and Mario alerted the others. The cloud stopped a ways in front of them, and then burst open with ten koopas, four flying, six on the ground.

One in the air pointed at Emmy and yelled, "Traitor!" It charged towards her, but Peach smacked it away with her umbrella.

"How do you know?" Emmy yelled back. Two of the flying koopas flew down to attack Emmy but were met by Luigi's jump punch.

Sundance and Nightash exchanged glances and then stormed after the ones on the ground, causing the frightened koopas to hide in their shells. The horses kicked the shells, sending them flying over the water.

One of the flying koopas laughed. "We're koopas! We can swim in the water! You can't hurt us." But the flying ones started to fly off back towards their cloud anyways. "Wait until Bowser hears about this! Traitor!"

The cloud flew off to gather the koopas sent flying by Sundance and Nightash's attack, and Emmy said, "This isn't good. This is terrible."

"Now Bowser knows you're on our side," Luigi said. "Well, we'll have to trick him then. Emmy, is there any way you can contact him?"

Emmy shook her head. "The only way of communication was in that shuttle. Well, next time we encounter Bowser or one of his minions, then I'll have to fool them and make him think that I'm really just fooling you."

"That would work," Peach said. Mario kept his mouth shut the whole time, watching Emmy closely for any signs of suspi.

"We should keep going," Nightash said, more concerned about getting himself home than helping the others with Bowser.

"Nightash is right, we can continue to think while we keep moving," Sundance said. "Hop on our backs. If we run we might be able to reach the fuzzy forest sooner than we expect."

The horses were right, and by noon they had reached the beach on the edge of the forest, Emmy still thinking in her head of how she could contact Bowser. Luigi put his hand on her shoulder. "You okay?" he asked her.

She sighed. "I don't know. I feel like so much is going on right now. The main thing I'm concerned about is that Bowser will think I've betrayed him. We can't let him think that, he needs to know that he's the one with the upper hand."

"Well, if Bowser ever attacks us himself, then maybe you could tell him while you 'pretend' to fight him off," Mario said, listening in.

"Lunch, anyone?" Peach asked, holding out ham sandwiches on a paper plate. Everyone gladly took one, except for the horses who were content to munch on the grass.

Once they were all done with their meal, Sundance suddenly pricked up her ears and then Nightash did the same. "Do you hear that?" she asked, walking closer to the forest. "It sounds like a giant cat."

"It must be a kija," Peach said. "They're dog-looking creatures that live in this forest. They'll stay away from us, though. Mario destroyed a giant one that was driving away all their food sources. They eat fuzzies."

"Luigi helped too!" Emmy said cheerfully, hugging Luigi playfully. "You can't forget Luigi!"

She released him and Mario thought he saw a hint of red in his brother's cheeks and chimed in, "Thanks for that lightening strike, bro. If you hadn't done that then I wouldn't have left alive."

"Oh, it was nothing," Luigi said. "I do it all the time in strikers, it wasn't any different than those times." Changing the subject he added, "Emmy, have you ever been north of the forest?"

"Of course!" she said, as she walked alongside Luigi and the others into the forest and off the beach. "The island this forest sits on extends far north and leads to people who live in towns similar to yours. They don't have kingdoms or anything like that, they're just simple towns. Goombas and toads and even humans live up in the north. They don't know about the world you come from though, but I think the goombas and toads and maybe even a few of the humans may have migrated from your world a long time ago. The land up there is called Seria. The people are nice so we have nothing to worry about."

"That's a relief," Peach said. "I've been needing some nice hospitality. What about Bowser's new lair? How far north is it of Seria?"

"I'm not sure. Since we're travelling on foot it will be a week at least. But the land between Bowser's lair and Seria has been known to be cursed. I'm not quite sure why, but I've heard of people going mad in the snowy mountains there."

With a description of the lands up ahead, the travelers continued northward, eventually reaching the meadow where Mario had fought the giant kija (with Luigi's help) and into denser darker woodland by nightfall. The kijas stayed away from the group of travelers, making their journey to the northern lands of Seria easier than they had expected.


	16. Lorenzo's Secret

A/N: Short! That's how all my chapters seem to be these days, what with balancing life and two stories. This story has almost 800 hits! Yay!

Reviews make me feel happy! ERR! (Enjoy, read and review!)

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Three days into their journey they had finally reached the land of Seria. Over the days the trees had eventually thinned out (along with Mario's grudge against Emmy), leaving nothing but hilly grassland with snow scattered here and there. Tired but determined, the horses continued a running pace each day, passing through a few towns every day, none of them helpful enough to help them reach the mountains of the north.

They broke out their winter clothes farther on, however Luigi had no winter clothes with him, so he wore one of Mario's slightly smaller red coats over his usual outfit. Eventually they came to a town smaller than the rest close to sunset, with few buildings and houses.

"This is the town of… Locke, I think?" Emmy said as the horses slowed their pace at the town's outskirts. The houses here were few and plain, looking similar to the houses in the Mushroom Kingdom. A few toads were walking around, used to the cold more than the shivering travelers.

A toad carrying a small basket spotted and ran over to them. "Hi! Welcome to Disa! "

"Wrong town," Emmy whispered to Luigi.

The toad continued in a cheerful voice. "You look cold, let me show you to our mayor's house!"

"Actually we were just planning on passing through," Peach said. The toad looked slightly disappointed.

"Where are you headed, then?" the toad asked. Even if he'd been pelted with a snowball his smile would have remained.

"We're going farther north past Seria to the mountains," Emmy said. "Is there anyone who might help us get there?"

The toad's expression changed drastically to one of fright as he dropped his basket into the snow. "What?" the toad asked in a squeaky voice, and then ran off, leaving his basket behind.

"Well," Luigi said, breaking the silence. "Anyone know what _that_ was about?" The toad who'd ran off, was now talking to the others in the town. Now all the toads looked panicked and were running towards a single building. This continued until all the toads had disappeared from the town.

"Maybe we should leave…" Luigi suggested. "After that odd reaction I don't think anyone really wants to talk to us."

"Quiet, Luigi," Mario said. A loud clang came from the building all the toads had disappeared into, and the door slowly opened as a man stepped out.

Luigi's mouth and eyes were wide with astonishment. The man was strikingly similar to Luigi, older, but it could as well have been his doppelganger. His moustache was perfectly similar to Luigi's and his blue eyes reflected Luigi's own eyes. His outfit was that of a long silver parka and there was not a hat above his head.

"Mama mia," Luigi sighed, fainting and falling off the horse. "What's going on back there?" Nightash asked, as Emmy, Mario and Peach jumped off their horses to make sure Luigi was alright.

Luigi's doppelganger was now drawing closer, his expression somewhat matched to everyone else's surprise. "Who are you?" he asked, his voice, however, much lower than Luigi's high-pitched voice.

Emmy straightened herself as Mario hoisted up his brother, who was now slowly coming back to consciousness. "We wish to travel north of Seria—"

"I don't think you understood my question," the man said. "I asked 'who are you' not 'where are you going'."

"I am Emmy, from the Macachi Jungle, and this is Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach, all from the Mushroom Kingdom. We come here to know of the mountains north of Seria."

The man looked at Luigi, eyeing him suspiciously. "I am Lorenzo, the mayor of this town. I am sorry about the toads; they are frightened by the mountains and anyone who dares to pass them. Come with me, leave your horses outside."

"Hey, we can understand you, you know," Nightash said.

"I don't have room in my house," Lorenzo said. "And I can't open the windows for you to listen because I can't risk the cold entering my house. This way please." The others followed Lorenzo as he gave two knocks on the door with all the toads, and then continued on to another small building.

Grumbling, Nightash waited with Sundance outside as the humans went inside. Lorenzo drew a match out and lit several lamps inside, bringing light to the small brick room. Luigi, Mario, Emmy and Peach all sat down on a brown leather couch, Lorenzo sitting in a chair beside them. There was nothing special about the room, no pictures, no hanging objects, as if Lorenzo needed only what was needed for survival.

"Few people wish to cross the mountains," Lorenzo said. "You are the first in a long time. Why do you wish to?"

"Are you aware of Bowser? He's a giant koopa with a spiked shell," Mario said. "He's invaded your land north of the mountains, making a new lair there. We seek to destroy him."

"Yes, we've seen him. He's invaded some of the towns in Seria already, and we fear he will head here next. That is why the toads fear the mountains; they don't know what lies beyond them.

"You're not planning on travelling by foot, are you?"

"Yes, we are," Peach said. "Why?"

Lorenzo laughed. "None of you will make it out alive. The air up there is unforgiving, there's something in it that causes people to lose themselves. They go mad, blind, weak, deaf, weak, there is no limit to what can happen to you up there. Some people have an opposite effect though. They get stronger, smarter… I can't say what will happen to you, but if you really are planning on crossing the mountains, then I will give you something that will help you."

Lorenzo stood up and entered a door into another room. He emerged seconds later with dark wool-like scarves, and gave one to each of them. "These are the strongest fabric you will ever find. They are used by most of the people who cross the mountains. It allows you to breathe in the air you need, while keeping out most of the toxins in the air. After a while, though, the effects of the air will still get to you, so your journey won't be easy."

The four were looking over their scarves as Lorenzo sat back down, still looking at Luigi and Mario oddly.

Mario asked him, "Are you the only human who lives here?"

Lorenzo nodded. "My wife and I moved here a long time ago from the Mushroom Kingdom. We had two children, but we had to send them away for their own good. I'm still not quite sure where they are. My wife died a few years ago. So now I am the only one left."

"I'm very sorry for your loss," Peach said. Mario and Luigi were now looking at each other wide-eyed, communicating silently in a way that only close siblings could.

Emmy and Peach, even though they'd realized the similarities between Mario and Luigi and Lorenzo, they hadn't quite figured out what the two siblings had.

Lorenzo stood up and walked over to the door. "I can get you some winter clothes for your travel; it will be much colder up there than it is down here." He opened the door, and they all walked outside to see Nightash untying the bags from Sundance with his teeth. The toads had also come out of their hiding spot, but still looked frightened at the travelers.

Sundance looked up at them in surprise. "We hope your journey goes well. Nightash and I have decided that we should leave you now. It has gotten too cold for us. Our shaggy hair is built for the desert, crazy as it seems, and we're getting too cold here."

"Oh…" Peach said. "If you really have to then. We'll miss you." She went over and hugged both Sundance and Nightash, and the others did the same.

"We wish you well on your journey," Sundance said. "Bowser means trouble for all. And Emmy, we hope you find your parents."

"Thanks," Emmy said. "You have a safe journey back."

The horses nodded their goodbyes to the travelers, and then galloped off into the distance. After they watched them off, Lorenzo led the four to another building. He pulled out a key, opened the door and then turned on the lights.

The room was cluttered with antiques, hardly navigable with all the overflowing wood furniture and cardboard boxes. Lorenzo made his way, slowly, over to an only wardrobe and then managed to open it but moving some boxes out of the way.

The dusty doors swung open, and as they did, a small green cap with a tiny little 'L' on it fell slowly to the floor. Lorenzo tried quickly to pick it up and put it back, but Luigi and Mario had already seen it, and they stared at each other in shock.

Lorenzo continued to rummage through the wardrobe, however, and pulled out four long parkas, sweaters, scarves, hats and earmuffs.

"Do we really need all of that?" Emmy asked, as Lorenzo began distributing the clothing.

"It's colder than you can imagine up there. You might even need more than this. When will you be setting off?"

The four looked at each other. "Tomorrow, probably," Mario said. "Could we stay here? We've eaten already. We just need a place to sleep."

Lorenzo nodded. "Of course, I have two beds in my house that you and Luigi could sleep in, and I'm sure I could find some toads who would let Emmy and Peach stay for the night."

They four agreed, and Luigi pulled Mario aside as they were leaving the small building. "Mario is that…"

"Yeah, Luigi. Lorenzo is our father."


	17. Paternal Love

A/N: Well, to be honest, I don't have much to say... other than this is one of my favorite chapters so far. Mario acts a little OOC, and Emmy acts just a bit strange but that's for a reason.

As always, Enjoy, read and review!

* * *

Chapter 17: Paternal Love

Lorenzo opened the door in his tiny house, and Mario and Luigi peered inside to see exactly what they had expected. The room felt like home to the Mario Bros, as they knew it had been their home at some point in time.

Two beds, one red, one green, were in the room, along with matching desks, dressers and mirrors.

"Let me know if you need anything," Lorenzo said, and closed the door behind him as he left.

"Well," Mario said, placing his bag on the red bed. "We have a busy day tomorrow, we should hit the hay."

Luigi sat down on the green bed across from Mario. "You don't want to talk to our father, Mario? Our father we haven't seen almost our whole lives?"

Mario shrugged as he pulled his pajamas out of his pack. "I don't see the point. He knows, we know, why should either of us force a relationship?"

Luigi couldn't believe it. Mario refusing to form a relationship with his own father? This wasn't like his brother. "Are you okay?" Luigi asked.

"I just think that we shouldn't make our lives more complicated than they already are. He knows we're busy, and to be honest, I don't think he even bothered to look for us after we left Brooklyn!"

"Maybe he didn't know we left Brooklyn," Luigi retorted. "Maybe he left us alone because he knew we were in danger before and if he knew where we were, then someone might have used him to get to us."

Mario furrowed his brows at Luigi. "You came up with all that just now? Who would have wanted to hurt us besides Bowser?"

"I don't know, maybe Bowser _was_ the threat… stupid."

"What'd you call me?"

"I'm tired. It's been a long day, and I want to go to sleep."

"No, you called me stupid." Mario bopped Luigi on the head, knocking off his cap. "And I think we should get some sleep."

"What? Just because you're the older brother means you can boss me around?"

The two brothers took short jabs at each other for a while after that, Mario making fun of Luigi by frolicking around the room pretending to be in a dress and Luigi mocking him by saying, "Oh, I'm Mario, the wonderful hero who pretends his brother doesn't exist! The princess has been kidnapped? What? I have to save her? _Again_?"

Mario continued to frolic with the invisible dress until Luigi yelled, "That's a low blow! Just stop it! Let's just get some sleep; I'm tired of arguing with you."

"Great," Mario said, storming into the bathroom and slamming the door. Luigi quickly changed into his pajamas and crawled into bed. He pulled the covers over his head, as Mario entered the room and turned off the light.

They didn't say a word until Mario was asleep, snoring. Luigi couldn't sleep, however, tossing and turning, looking at the continuous glare of light coming from under the door. Lorenzo was still awake.

* * *

"So, what was with Mario and Luigi and that Lorenzo guy? Are they related or something?" Emmy asked, sitting on her bed in the room they would be sleeping in. Lorenzo had encouraged a kind toad to lend one of his rooms to the tired travelers. The toads didn't speak a word to the humans, just simply showed them their room and left them alone.

Peach widened her eyes. "Of course they're related! You didn't see the hat?'

"What hat?"

"The tiny Luigi hat that fell out of that wardrobe. It must've been Luigi's when he was younger."

Emmy tried to think back. What had she been doing then? Right, looking at her nails. "I don't remember. What does that mean? Oh… is he their _father?!_"

Peach nodded, and Emmy stared in shock, her mouth wide open. "Whoa… so, their mother… oh, she must be dead. Wait, Mario and Luigi… where did they get sent away to if Bowser was after them?"

"Brooklyn," Peach said. "But I've never been there. I don't even know what it looks like."

"Where is it? Wait… no, never mind, can you tell me their background?"

Peach sagged her shoulders. The Mario Bros. story was not a short one, but she told it anyways. "Well, none of us remember, but I've heard the story about a million times from Toadsworth, this old toad who helps out at the castle. Anyways, when they were just still babies, apparently Mario and Luigi were kidnapped somehow and taken to Yoshi's Island, an island just off the coast of the Mushroom Kingdom. Luigi ended up getting kidnapped by Kamek, who works for Bowser. Mario met Yoshi, and together they went after Luigi. They rescued him from Baby Bowser, and then returned back to the Mushroom Kingdom.

"After that, though, Bowser continued to make threats on their lives. They left without explanation, and then about ten years ago, they stumbled into our world from a place called Brooklyn through a pipe. They were plumbers back in that world, and they had no memory of this place. The first time I met them was when they rescued me from Bowser's castle.

"More time went by, and Mario and Luigi gained fame in the Mushroom Kingdom. They've never gone back to Brooklyn. Or at least not that I know of."

"Hmm," Emmy said, thinking. "So Lorenzo sent them to some place called Brooklyn. And then they came back. Lorenzo must have had no idea they even came back. This place is so far from the Mushroom Kingdom I'm not surprised he didn't know Mario and Luigi had returned."

Peach yawned. "I'm tired. I need my beauty rest. What about you?"

"Yeah," Emmy said, even though there were more questions about Mario and Luigi she wanted answered. "I'm beat."

* * *

Careful not to wake his sleeping brother, Luigi crawled out of bed and then opened the door slightly to see Lorenzo on a chair reading a book by firelight.

"Evening," Lorenzo said, looking up at Luigi from his book. "Can't sleep?"

"No," Luigi said, and then plopped down onto the couch, running his fingers through his hair. He searched his mind for the right words to say. They both knew, but Luigi had no idea how to bring it up. "How come you never looked for us?" Luigi asked.

Lorenzo paused, looking up from his book, which he closed. "I… I wanted a better life for you and brother. Your mother and I felt safer with you in a better place. It was hard to let go of you, but we entrusted you in the care of my mother. She lived in your apartment building. She was known as Ms. Carrens to you."

Luigi's mouth was hanging open now. "Ms… Ms. Carrens?" The sweet old lady lived in Mario and Luigi's apartment building, on the same floor as them. She often brought them desserts and invited them over for dinner. She died just a few years before Mario and Luigi came across the Mushroom Kingdom. "Our grandmother?"

Lorenzo nodded. "She often contacted us to tell us how you were doing. I'm glad you came back, though. As far as I was concerned, I thought you were still in Brooklyn with Mario, happy." Lorenzo smiled. "So, you and Mario are going to fight Bowser. Are you sure you're up to it?"

"Oh, yeah," Luigi said. "Mario and I have been fighting Bowser since the moment we entered the Mushroom Kingdom. The first thing we did was go find Princess Peach and rescue her. Did you… ever hear about us?"

Lorenzo shook his head, yet smiled at the success of his children. "I haven't returned to the Mushroom Kingdom since I moved here. And this place is too far away to know what is going on over there. I would love to hear your stories. But you really should get some sleep. It's almost midnight, and your journey is going to be long."

"Well, uh, okay," Luigi said, standing up. He walked over to the bedroom door, looking back at his father. "I'll see you in the morning."

"Goodnight, son," Lorenzo said.

As Luigi was about to enter the room, he turned around to his father and said, "Goodnight, dad." A chill prickled Luigi's skin as he entered the room with his still sleeping brother.

* * *

Mario woke up to see his sleeping brother entangled in his covers. He quickly dressed, and then shook his brother awake. "Luigi, we got to get going." He pushed the bedroom door open to see Lorenzo frying eggs on a frying pan.

"Good morning," Lorenzo said, moving the eggs around a bit before setting them on three plates, which he had set down at the dining table.

Mario passed the fireplace and couches and sat down in front of one of the steaming plates of scrambled eggs. He felt awkward as his father gazed back at him from where he was frying strips of bacon and the fact that he would eventually have to speak to his father was like having a Boo behind him; it would wait there, but whenever he turned around to make it go away, it would fool him and disappear.

The bedroom door opened up as Luigi walked out, sleepy eyed and still in his pajamas, his hair a mess. He sat down next to his brother.

"You didn't have the decency to put on some clothes?" Mario whispered to Luigi.

"He's our father, he won't care," Luigi said, and then began to eat his eggs, while Mario waited for the bacon that Lorenzo seemed to be taking forever with. "Sorry about last night. We both got kind of out of control, huh?"

Mario nodded. Luigi noticed he seemed tense, ready to spring up and leave. "What's-a matter with you?" Luigi asked. "You afraid to talk to him? Is that what last night was about?"

Mario had no time to speak as Lorenzo dropped two pieces of bacon on each of their plates, but he shot him a nervous look that answered Luigi's question.

* * *

Emmy stared in wonder at the tiny wooden fork and knife, the toads in turn staring in wonder at her and Peach. Lorenzo was the only human the toads knew; anyone else was too foreign to comprehend.

The stools Peach and Emmy were sitting on were a bit too small and uncomfortable, and the food and utensils seemed minuscule when compared to the ones they were used to. The room was silent as the toads waited for their guests to take a bite.

Emmy picked up her fork and showed it to Peach. "It's so cute!" she said in a near whisper, then grabbed her knife, determined to cut her pancake into a million pieces. She took a bite, smiled, and the toads breathed a sigh of relief. Then they looked to Peach.

After a few bites, Emmy covered her mouth, looking back and forth from the frightened faces of the toads to the confused face of Peach.

"They want you to eat," Emmy said, no longer able to contain her laughter. Peach picked up her knife and fork and then cut off a piece and ate it. "It's good," she said. The toads smiled at each other and then began eating their own food.

Peach was now laughing softly at the toads, who could now care less about their guests.

* * *

"Ugh," Luigi complained as he hoisted the overweight pack onto his back. "I already have a zillion layers of clothing, do I seriously need more weight?" he asked.

Mario, Emmy, Peach and Luigi were in Lorenzo's house, preparing to leave towards the mountains.

"A zillion?" Mario asked, looking his brother up and down. "Really?"

"Do we know where we're going?" Emmy asked, her own pack already on as she walked over to Mario, Luigi and Peach. They looked at her in surprise.

"We thought you would be the one leading us through the mountains," Mario said. Lorenzo looked at the four travelers and then opened a closet door and began rummaging.

"Me? Sure I've flown over them, but flying over and going through are two different things."

"She's right, we need like a compass or something," Luigi said.

"We need a guide," Peach put in.

"You need this," Lorenzo said, handing Mario a small brass compass. "It won't show you the best way through the mountains but it will tell you which way is north."

"Great," Emmy said. "We should get going then. I have a feeling that this is going to take us about a week."

"I agree," Mario said. "Does everyone have all their food and clothing?"

"Yes, and a million pounds of bricks," Luigi said, struggling with the weight of his pack.

"With the exception of Luigi, we're ready to go," Peach said. "Thank you so much for everything you've done, Lorenzo. And thank you for the scarves."

"Yeah, thanks," Luigi said.

They walked out of Lorenzo's house and looked northward at the looming mountains. The closest one was about five miles, Mario guessed.

"You must head straight for mountains," Lorenzo told them. "Always stay true north unless you really have to deviate. The toxins in the air will make it harder for you to travel, so you have little time to get in and get out."

"These toxins..." Emmy said, looking just a litte confused. "If these effects...say... we all go deaf or something. Is it permanent?"

"No, it should fade within a day or two," Lorenzo said. "I tried going through the mountains once, and I lost my sense smell. Didn't know until I got back, though!"

"Let's hope that's all we lose," Mario said. "We should get going." He walked over to Lorenzo and shook his hand. "It was good to see you," he said.

"You too, son. I'm very proud of you, you know."

Mario, unsure of what to say, just nodded, and then stepped aside.

Luigi, on the other hand, walked over to his father and hugged him. "It was really good to see you again," he said.

After their embrace, Lorenzo placed his hand on Luigi's shoulder. "I'm going to miss you and Mario very much."

"I can send you letters every once in a while," Luigi suggested.

"How will they get here?"

"Eh, I'll find a way."

Peach and Emmy were fiddling with the compass once Luigi and Mario had said their goodbyes. "Point it this way," Peach was saying. "No! The other way." Emmy twisted the compass back around in her hands, and then Peach and Emmy looked ahead.

"There's north!" Emmy said. "I knew we'd find it; this is a piece of cake." Peach rolled her eyes cheerfully.

"Now that we have a heading, I think we should leave," Mario said. "We'll see you around." The four travelers looked back and waved at Lorenzo and a few of the braver toads of Disa as they left the row of buildings and headed north towards the mountains.

* * *

A/N: I'm really awkward with goodbye scenes! Hopefully this turned out okay.


	18. The Impending Fog

A/N: Thank you Torta della pizza for your wonderfully long review (and your continuous reviewing)! The previous chapter is still my favorite! So, what will happen to our travelers in the mountains?

For anyone reading Defiance, that story is on temporary hiatus, due to lack of ideas and not enough time. I want to finish this one first.

I feel like I'm updating too quickly. I write too fast for my own good.

Enjoy, read and review!

* * *

Once they'd reached the base of the first mountain, albeit small, they covered their noses and mouths with the scarves that Lorenzo had given them. "Everyone ready?" Mario asked, taking a few steps ahead, the snow crunching under his feet.

Luigi pulled up the hood on his coat, covering most of his face. All that was visible was his eyes.

"We're not climbing up that thing, are we?" Emmy asked. "We could just go around. It would be faster, since none of us really have any expertise in mountain climbing."

Peach and Luigi nodded. "We're with her," they said. Mario sighed. "Alright, we can go around. Just remember not to take off your scarves…"

"We know!" they all responded.

After passing around the first mountain, the going got rougher, climbing up sheer hills and down deep valleys, but the travelers always kept their pace, the thought of toxins still lingering in their mind.

Noon rolled around, and they found a good place to rest and eat lunch. Lorenzo had given them thermoses with tomato soup, which they tried their best to keep warm in their pack. They each poured themselves a cup, and prepared to eat.

Emmy whipped off her scarf and everyone looked at her in surprise. "What?" she asked. "How else am I going to eat my soup?"

"Like this," Luigi said, lifting the bottom of his scarf and swallowing his portion in one swallow.

"Okay, you soup freak, I am not eating it like that," Emmy said. She indulged in her soup slowly.

"Put it back on," Peach said, handing her Emmy's scarf. "We don't want you to go mad."

"Who said I was going mad?" Emmy asked. She quickly swallowed her soup in a few swallows, and then took the scarf from Peach. "Happy now?"

"Just put the scarf on!" they all yelled.

"Fine… fine…" Emmy said, and she complied.

After lunch, the pressed on, consulting with the compass, until the walking for the day was done. The sun had long disappeared behind the mountains, and they found themselves looking for a place to spend the night.

Mario, Luigi and Peach watched Emmy closely for any signs of madness, but there hadn't been any yet. "There are a lot of caves around here, let's just stay in one of them," Mario suggested. "I saw one just a ways back there. Want to go check it out?"

They hiked back a ways to see a small but warm cave, and they all agreed to stay there for the night.

"I hope we don't stay in these mountains for too long," Emmy said, as they all set down their packs.

"I couldn't agree more," Luigi remarked, stretching. "Will you stop it with that?" he asked Emmy once she took off her scarf again. "Please put it back on."

"I don't want to sleep with that thing on."

Luigi's eyebrows furrowed. "Well, neither do I, but I don't want to go mad. Now put it back on!" Mario, Emmy and Peach were stunned by Luigi's sudden hostility. "His temper isn't usually this short, is it?" Peach asked Mario, who shook his head.

Emmy put her scarf back on and then unpacked the sleeping bag and tent. Mario went over to help. "I'm sorry I called you a soup freak," Emmy said to Luigi. But his light-hearted spirit had returned.

"Oh, that's fine," Luigi said. "I was just hungry anyways."

Emmy whispered harshly to Mario. "What is wrong with your brother?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's the toxins?"

"They wouldn't affect him that fast, would they? Maybe he's just a little out of his element and all. Doesn't he scare easily?"

Mario smiled. "Don't say that too his face. But Luigi adapts to things better than you would expect. I'm afraid it might be the toxins. Maybe it's bringing out his anger. Either way, this isn't looking good."

They finished setting up the tent, and then all four helped set up the sleeping bags. They had another portion of soup, of which Luigi complained loudly, to everyone's surprise, and they spent their first night in the cave.

Emmy was the first one to wake the next morning. After rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and accidentally bumping into Luigi, she zipped open the tent and walked outside and yawned.

She widened her eyes. Her scarf. She didn't feel it on her. She ran back into the tent and wrapped it around her head. It must have come off during the night.

She looked at the others. Luigi's scarf was still slightly on, and Mario and Peach's were still perfectly wrapped around their heads. There was something that she noticed about the air around her. It was… foggy, almost.

Luigi stirred and Emmy began rolling up her sleeping bag.

"It's foggy outside," Emmy remarked to Luigi, now sitting up, readjusting his scarf. "Go look. I don't know how we're going to travel through it."

Luigi groaned sleepily and then walked outside. He hadn't been gone for just a few seconds when he came back inside. "It's not foggy," he said. "What are you talking about?"

"It's foggy out," Emmy said. She finished tying up her sleeping bag and then ran outside with Luigi. "See," she said, pointing ahead. "You can hardly see that mountain."

There was something wrong with Emmy. "I can see it perfectly fine," Luigi said. "Are you okay?" A thought hit him. It was the toxins, there was no other explanation. He needed to keep an eye out for his friend.

"I feel fine," Emmy said. "Let's go wake the others up."

They woke the others, Luigi whispering to Mario and Peach separately his concerns about Emmy. "It's because she took her scarf off!" Luigi said, angrily shoving his things into his pack.

"Both Emmy and Luigi are beginning to lose it," Peach said to Mario later once they had left the cave. "What are we going to do? We might not be able to control both of them."

Mario's mind raced. Should they have even come to the mountains? Maybe Nightash had been right. They should've tried to refuel the shuttle and get it out of the hands of the Cohas. Their journey would have been so much easier.

They were forced up their first mountain that second day and twice Emmy stumbled along the narrow and rocky path, Luigi catching her every time. She seemed disconnected from the world, her eyes wide as if she was experiencing a nightmare in her consciousness.

"Do you need to slow down, Emmy?" Peach asked, concerned.

"No, no I'm fine," she said, Luigi helping her up. Peach gave one last look at Emmy and then walked off after Mario.

"Are you really okay?" Luigi asked.

Emmy eyes watered. "No, I… I've never been this scared in my life."

"Is it the heights, because I'm a little afraid of heights too…"

"No… Luigi, I can hardly see your face. I… I think I'm going blind. It all seemed foggy at first and then it was light a sheet of gray was being placed over my eyes." She looked down at her feet. "I can't even see my feet!"

As nervous as he was doing it, he hooked his arm through hers. "Walk with me," he said. "I'll make sure you don't fall." They smiled and continued on, catching up with Mario and Peach.

"Can I ask you something?" Luigi asked.

"Sure," Emmy said. "What is it?"

"How did you learn to be a Lota? Did it just come naturally, or did someone teach you?"

"Someone taught me. It was a lot harder than you'd think. I started when I was six, the same year my parents were kidnapped. There was an old man who lived in the tribe, even older than Chief Micah, who had trained the Lota before, who had come from the Coha Desert. So he taught me everything I needed to know. He got mad at me a lot, said I was too weak to be a Lota. Even though that's a little true I still see him as a grumpy old man. He always went on about me taking an eternity to go through training. The Lota before me took only three years to train, while I took seven.

"Anyways, with no power stars to really go around, I had to go stealing them from the Cohas, from some of the places in our desert, and from the Fuzzy Forest. I felt bad for taking them, so sometimes I would put them back. It wasn't until I heard about Bowser holding my parents hostage that I collected a ton of power stars and set off after you guys."

"There was a Lota before you?" Luigi asked. "Did you ever meet them?"

Emmy sighed. "There can only be one Lota in the world at a time. I'm not quite sure why. Not enough power stars to go around, maybe." She stopped talking and turned around, looking off into the distance.

Luigi looked back, then remembered she could hardly see. "What is it?" he asked.

"I… I thought I heard something."

The rest of the day passed with ease as the wound their way up and then back down the mountaintop, the air around them seemingly getting colder with each passing second.

They stopped again that night, except there was no cave, so they found a sheltered spot from the howling wind where they set up tent.

Mario opened his thermos that night to see it empty from lunch. "Anyone else's soup all gone?"

Luigi opened his and said, "Fortunately, yes."

"Fortunately?" Peach asked.

"We've had tomato soup for the last four meals!"

"Alright, then, we need to make something else for supper," Mario said, looking through his pack. "We have a can of tomato soup—"

"No!" Luigi yelled. "Anything but that."

"Alright fine. Macaroni and cheese?"

Luigi was fine with that, so everyone helped set up the burner and the pot. "Um, Mario?" Princess Peach said. "We don't have any water to boil it."

"We have snow," Emmy said. "We could just melt it."

Luigi went out and brought in a heap of snow, which they melted and used for their meal. Before she even took a bite though, Peach hesitated. "Wait a minute," she said.

Everyone was already eating their macaroni. "Everyone stop eating!" Peach said. Mario and Emmy looked at her in surprise, but Luigi continued eating. "Luigi stop eating or I'm going to smack that bowl out of your hands."

Luigi stopped and set down his bowl.

"I think this food is poisoned," Peach said.

"Why?" Mario asked.

"Because of the snow we used. The air has toxins in it, right? Well, if the air has toxins, then wouldn't everything around it have toxins?"

"We're eating toxins?!" Emmy exclaimed.

"It does make sense though," Mario said.

"Are you kidding?" Luigi asked. "What are we going to eat?"

"Well, I'm fine with not eating anything until breakfast," Emmy said.

"We'll have to be more careful from now on, or else we're going to start being affected," Mario remarked.

"I should probably tell you all, then," Emmy said. "I can only see a few feet in front of me. My vision has gotten worse."

"Well," Peach said after a moment of silence. "It could be worse. We'll look after you, don't worry."

Emmy smiled, hardly able to see much around her. Meanwhile, Luigi's mind was churning with anger, and he had no idea.


	19. Not Alone

A/N: Whoa, two updates in a day. Well, this probably means that I won't have another one in a while, which is a little sad, considering the sudden ending to this one...

I'm going to start putting chapter title at the beginning of each one. I know, nothing exciting, just thought I'd let you know.

Enjoy, read, and review!

* * *

CHAPTER 19: Not Alone

A scream pierced Mario's ears that woke him up. It was a short-lived high-pitched scream, but it woke him nonetheless. He jumped up. Bowser?

It was Emmy, her hand clasped to her mouth, staring off into the distance. He ran over to her and whispered, "Are you okay? What are you screaming about?"

"Mario?" she asked. "I… I can't see you. Mario, I'm blind!"

Mario sighed, then peered out of the tent. The sun was rising, so he decided to wake the others. "Don't move," Mario told Emmy. "You'll be fine, okay?"

Emmy nodded, staying in her place until Luigi and Peach were up. The darkness surrounded her, as if she was being squeezed into a tiny crack and wouldn't fit. "Emmy can't see anything anymore," Mario said. "Luigi, I want you to stay with her the rest of the day and walk with her. Can you do that?"

"No problem," Luigi said, helping Emmy gather her sleeping bag and pack. Mario and Peach, though a little disconcerted that Luigi, who also seemed to be losing his marbles, would be helping Emmy, packed up the tent and all their other belongings.

"Can you carry your pack?" Luigi asked. Emmy looked straight past him. "Of course I can! I'm blind, not paralyzed."

"Thank the stars for that…" Luigi muttered to himself. Emmy fumbled for the strap on her pack and then eventually had it hoisted on her back.

* * *

There was a gnawing at the back of Luigi's mind. It was like a bee he couldn't swat, but it was always there, buzzing…

He spun around, eyes wide. "What was that?" The travelers were crossing a wide valley, and the other three looked back to where Luigi was looking.

"I heard it too," Peach said. Emmy and Mario nodded.

"Is there something following us?" Emmy said. "It's like a wailing noise."

They were silent until a single voice rang out from far away. "Ha!"

They formed together, Emmy in the middle, three of them facing separate directions. "What's happening?" Emmy asked.

"We're just being cautious," Luigi said, already slipping off his pack. Mario, Peach and Emmy did the same.

Luigi braced himself as a dark haggard creature began leaping down quickly from the side of one of the mountains. "Look!" He yelled, pointing.

"What is that?" Mario asked. The creature reached the ground, and landed on all fours, despite its human form. It rose up on its hind legs and ran towards them, slightly hunched over. It stopped suddenly about twenty feet away, spraying snow up into the air. It was a man, a slightly old, hunched over and bruised man.

"Ha!" he yelled, smiling with his yellow teeth. His face was purple and blue, his eyes wide and bloodshot. His clothes may have been warm at one time, but now lay in tatters on his thin frame.

"Can… can we help you?" Peach asked.

The man swung his head and looked at Peach. "You… you can still speak! Leave! Before the mountains devour you!"

The man had clearly lost his mind from the toxins of the mountains. "We're going to the far north," Emmy said shakily. "We just wish to pass."

"No," the man said, moving from side to side. "Go! Go! Back the way you came! Back… back… yes, the way you came shall be fine."

"We are not leaving," Luigi said. The man was angered.

He clenched his fists and his staggering increased. "How dare you! My mountains… my mountains… these are all mine! I shall make you pay!"

"You work for Bowser, don't you?" Mario asked, jumping to conclusions.

The man screamed a shrill, wailing scream, lifting his head into the air. "I… no, not him! He will not invade my mountains. I will kill him! Just like I will kill you!" He crouched down and then leapt at them, Luigi releasing his Thunderhand ability on the old crazy man.

He was shot back, but he ran forward again, getting hit once again with lighting.

"Let me hit him," Mario said, planning to use his own technique. The man ran at them again, arms flailing. Mario prepared a fireball in his hand… but nothing happened. Smoke came from the palm of his hand. He tried again. Smoke.

Once more, and finally he got fire. He shot it at the man, who screamed as his clothes caught on fire. He rolled onto the ground and put the flames out, and looked up at the four afterwards, scared.

Luigi walked over and grabbed him by his coat. "You are going to let us pass. We will get rid of Bowser for you, and you will leave us alone after that. Deal?"

The man nodded quickly asLuigi threw him down to the ground. "Let's keep moving," Luigi said harshly, picking up his pack. Mario and Peach exchanged worried glances and then followed Luigi with their own packs, leaving Emmy behind.

Emmy felt a hand grab her ankle. "What do you want?" she asked. She could hear the quick breaths of the old man.

"You are blind," he said. "The one with thunder, he must leave. The mountains will destroy him. He must leave at once!" The hand left her ankle and she heard the sound of snow crunching as he ran away.

"Sorry, Emmy!" Emmy could hear Luigi running towards her and he grabbed her hand, helping her up. "I didn't mean to leave you. That guy was so creepy."

* * *

"Do you mind if I walk with Mario for a ways?" Emmy asked Luigi just a while after noon.

"Sure," Luigi said, but frightened for her safety, he walked her over to Mario. "Watch out for her," Luigi said to his brother, and then walked back behind Peach.

"Okay," Emmy said, once she had her arm around Mario's. "I have a feeling something is seriously wrong with Luigi."

"Me and Peach were talking about that earlier," Mario said, looking back concernedly at his brother. "It's like he's having mood swings and then not remembering them."

"It's the toxins," Emmy said. "Lorenzo never told us they would affect us this fast! Maybe its because he didn't even know they'd affected him until he got back."

"True. They've already affected you, and I think they're starting to affect me. Watch."

"Blind?"

"Oh, right, sorry. Well, when we were trying to scare off that guy earlier, I tried to use my fire ability on him, you know, you've seen it before."

"Right?"

"Well, it wasn't until three tries later that I actually got it to work. The first two times it was just smoke, like I'm about to lose the ability. How are we going to cook food now? That's what I used last night…"

"Hmm, well, what happens happens, we just need to get out of her ASAP. Okay, so more on Luigi. That guy, he knew I was blind. He started talking to me. It was kind of sad, like the real person was still in there, but had no idea what was going on or how to stop it. Anyways, he knew I was blind and then he told me that the one with the thunder, the mountains will destroy him. Maybe he knows something we don't! What if Luigi ends up just like him?"

Mario took just one more look back at his brother. "Step up," he told Emmy, as they went over a bump.

"What I want to say," Emmy said. "Is that no matter what happens to Luigi, and I know I shouldn't be telling this to you because you're his brother and you know, that we need to, if necessary, knock him out if he becomes too dangerous."

"What?" Mario asked. "Oh, sorry, we're walking uphill now."

"I know, but it's better than having him run off in the middle of the night. You know how mean his voice is right now. If anything, he's frightening."

Mario could see she had good intentions, but to knock his own brother out? He hoped it didn't come to that.

The rest of the day went smoothly, Emmy tripped few, Luigi had only one angry outburst when Mario said he should've watched out for Emmy better, and Mario managed to get a few, but just a few, fireballs going. Peach seemed just fine however, and they all found themselves envying her good luck.

* * *

Mario tried the fire again. A spark, a puff of smoke… but no fire. "Maybe my lightening will work," Luigi mentioned. "Should I try?"

Mario nodded. He was hardly able to control his frustration. Why was it so hard to do this simple task? _It's the mountains, it's just their effects on you… you'll be fine once you leave,_ he told himself.

Luigi focused his eyes for a moment, and then released the lightening on the cooker. Orange flames trickled in the air, boiling the snow they'd gathered. Since all the food they'd brought required water to cook, they all agreed that they'd take a risk and use the snow for water.

Mario poured in the noodles, and then moved the wooden spoon around the snowy noodles slowly, monotonously.

He looked up and meet his brother's gaze. He stopped stirring. His brother was smiling mischievously at him, his eyes narrowed. The sight scared him. Luigi looked ready to attack Mario. He blinked, and shook his head slightly, trying to make the image go away.

Opening his eyes again, he saw Luigi looking at Emmy, waving his hand in front of her eyes. Despite her blindness, she turned her head and gave him an evil grin. Luigi pulled his hand away as Emmy laughed.

"I thought you were blind," Luigi said.

"I could feel the wind your hand was making," she said.

Mario smiled. His brother was fine, perfectly fine, right?

* * *

Emmy opened her eyes. Her dark, useless eyes. The darkness told her they were still in the mountains, the warmth of the sun that they'd survived another day. She crawled out of her sleeping bag and counted her way around the tent. Everyone had agreed to permanent sleeping places so she could keep track of where she was.

"Luigi," she called out, to wake him. "Luigi," she called again. There was a slight sound of a moving sleeping bag, and so she moved forward to the spot where Luigi's place was and squatted. She reached out.

Air.

Her sightless eyes widened. She felt the tent ground vigorously. Empty. There was nothing there. She took a few more steps and shook Mario awake.

"Mario!" she yelled. "Mario, something has happened. Oh… no…"

Mario grumbled as he woke. "What is it?" he asked.

"Luigi isn't here…"

His eyes widened as he jumped out of his sleeping bag. Sure enough, the spot where Luigi's familiar face should have been was replaced with nothingness. No sleeping bag, no pack, no sign of his brother.

"Oh, no… no… no…" Mario repeated over and over again. It had finally happened. The mountains had gotten inside his brother's head and taken him hostage.

* * *

A/N: Sorry about the cliffhanger! Can anyone guess what happened to Luigi, besides the obvious? Don't give it away though if you do.


	20. The Enigmatic Mr L

A/N: Nothing. Enjoy!

* * *

CHAPTER 20: The Enigmatic Mr. L

* * *

_Handsome… Strong… Fierce… Nothing will stop you_.

The reflection in the frozen water smiled back at him, the masked eyes glinting evilly. He didn't know his goal yet, but he knew he'd find it easily. The mountains looked conquerable, perfect for an underground lair. No one would come to these forbidding lands.

Perfect for Brobot, his poor robot brother, slaughtered years ago by that pesky red plumber… Mario… His name set Mr. L on edge.

But he would have his revenge on, Mario, Bowser, and Peach. There were trees in this valley, he noticed. All the other ones he'd been to since late last night had only snow and rocks. He could have sworn he even saw animals in this valley. And that man he saw earlier… the crazy one with the hunched back, who ran away when he saw him… Yes, the mountains already feared him.

He smiled as he readjusted his green cap with its backward 'L', and then hoisted his pack on once again, leaping away to find his destiny is this cold land.

* * *

Emmy held on to the back of Mario's coat as they ran off, away from their campsite, following the snowy footprints that Luigi had left behind. But the wind was howling faster now, snow blowing over the tracks, as if the mountains wanted Luigi for themselves.

Emmy tripped, but easily found her footing and caught up, but continued to trip. "Maybe I should stay behind," she said.

"No," Mario said, helping her up. He put his arm around her shoulders. "When I duck, then you'll know. I'll tell you."

Emmy nodded and the continued their frantic footsteps over the angry tundra, whose wind kept the heroes from their journey to find their friend.f

"Stop!" Peach yelled, after some time had passed following the footprints. She led the others behind a boulder. "Shh… do you see that?" She peered over the top of the snowy boulder, and Mario looked with her.

"What is it?" Emmy asked.

"It's a pack," Mario said. "It must be Luigi's…"

"But where is he?" Peach asked.

Emmy screamed and then yelled, "Let go of me!"

Peach and Mario turned around to see Luigi dragging Emmy off by her leg. "Luigi!" Mario yelled at his brother.

"Get off of me, Luigi!" Emmy said, barely missing Luigi's face with her free foot. Mario ran over to apprehend his brother, whose cap now had a backwards green and black 'L' and had a mask covering his eyes. He jumped at his brother, who released lightening at Mario, sending him flying backwards.

Not knowing what else to do, and finally being freed from Luigi, Emmy put herself in a power star bubble and waited.

Luigi clenched his fists. But it wasn't Luigi, Mario and Peach both knew. Mr. L had returned, and it seemed he was now determined to seek revenge on what had happened so long ago.

"I have returned, Mario and Peach! And now I will be taking your friend with me!"

"I'm not going anywhere," Emmy said, still in her protective bubble. "What's wrong with you, Luigi?"

"I am Mr. L! Aka, the Green Thunder!" He pointed at Mario. "Just because you're in red doesn't mean you're strong. Have at you!"

"Mario help!" She released herself from the bubble and Mario and Mr. L both ran towards her. Mario tried his fire, but remembered just a second too late he couldn't use it. Mr. L sent him flying, and then scooped Emmy up in his arms.

Desperate, Peach ran over with her umbrella and brought it down on Mr. L's arm. He dropped Emmy, screaming from the pain in his arm.

"Wow," Peach said. "I didn't know I could hit that hard." Emmy began to get up, desperate to run anywhere, but she ran straight back into Mr. L, who held on tight to her this time.

"Looks like your umbrella is no match for me, dear," Mr. L said in a cynical voice, yet still holding onto his hit arm. Emmy was pounding her fists on Mr. L's chest, trying as best as she could to get away. "If you'll excuse me," he said, and then ran off.

Mario held his head and slowly sat up. "Did he get away?" he asked. Peach nodded, and Mario got up. "I have to catch him."

Looking out, though, Mario saw that Luigi had already disappeared along with his pack, and was nowhere to be found. "Great, no we have idea where they are…"

"Let go of me! What in the world is wrong with you, Luigi?! Put me down!" Emmy continued to scream and kick Mr. L, but he seemed not to care. They reached an odd valley with a lake and snow covered trees, and he finally set her down.

She put herself in a power star bubble. "I'm not moving until you tell me what's going on, Luigi," she said.

_Luigi…_ Mr. L thought. _Who was that?_ "I'm not quite sure who Luigi is, or you for that matter. It's me, the enigmatic Mr. L. And I must say, beautiful lady, it is an honor to be in your presence." He bowed in front of her. "You dare not bow back?"

"I'm blind," she pointed out.

"What a shame, you're missing a beautiful sight. And soon I will rule this land."

"Ha! Fat chance, _Mr. L_! You better let me go."

"You seem to be the one holding yourself hostage. And besides, where would you go? Like you said, you're blind!"

Emmy crossed her arms, frustrated with herself. She needed to get Luigi, Mr. L, on her side, make him think that she was not the enemy…

"Well," she finally said. "I guess I really should thank you. You kind of rescued me back there."

She heard Mr. L spin around. "Rescued?"

"Yes, Mr. L. You saved me from Mario and Peach. I know, they try to make themselves look all good and innocent. But they're the ones who should be punished." She began talking so fast she had almost no idea what she was saying. "They kidnapped me and made me go blind, and now they're using my power against Bowser. They really want to take over the world."

"Power?"

Emmy got rid of her bubble and stood up. "Stand in front of me." She heard the crunching of snow, and could sense him standing in front of her. This was not Luigi, she knew. It was an entirely different person, angry and violent. She was suddenly afraid of the once easy-going plumber, but she raised her hand and attacked.

Mr. L was shot backwards, his head hitting hard on a boulder. "Oh…" _Gullible, pathetic_, Mr. L thought. _Don't do that again_. He stood up quickly, waiting for the blind girl's next attack, but she stared ahead sightlessly, and thought she might even be telling the truth.

"Say beautiful," he said suavely, "What's your name?"

"Emmy." She looked slightly annoyed with him. Mr. L examined her. Sure not as pretty as the blond, but beautiful. "Mr. L, I have an idea that you just might like. Say, if you and I go north, together. We'd be unstoppable with your lightening power and me with my own power."

"What's north?"

"Oh, well, I'm blind, as you already know, and I'm afraid the only cure is going north. Not only that, but that is the end of the worlds, they say. The perfect place to rule an empire."

Mr. L petted his mustache. From what Emmy said, north sounded agreeable. "Fine then, we will go north. But first, there is a place I wish to visit first. You'll like it."

"How will I like it if I can't even see it?"

_Stupid_, Mr. L thought. "You'll like it anyways. Come on, let's go." He started to walk away and then to looked back to see Emmy wasn't following.

_She's blind, stupid!_ he thought. He ran over and held her hand. "I'm sorry," he said. "Let me lead the way, miss."

* * *

"What if they're not going north? Then what do we do?" Peach asked. "Oh, this is terrible."

"We just have to keep moving," Mario said. "We can't just wait around for them." Mario pulled out the compass and decided they should head slightly west, where Luigi's pack had been spotted. "West," Mario said to himself. "Since he's travelling with Emmy they might be going slowly. We could catch up."

By the compass and what they saw they continued their journey through the cold and heartless land, determined to find Emmy and the disoriented Luigi.

* * *

There was something different about this place, Emmy noticed. The wind was silent, the air warmer.

"There are trees and animals down here," Mr. L said. "None of the other valleys have this. I thought it would be useful later. Step lightly." He led her down the steep trail, where some of the snow had blown over revealing the hard-packed and frozen dirt below.

Emmy moved her head from side to side, wishing desperately that she could see. And suddenly, her wish was granted. But only partially. Outlined in the dense of snow covered and leave-less trees, was a shimmering snow leopard. It was surrounded by darkness, the emptiness that she could not see.

She looked at Mr. L, but when she turned her eyes away from the snow leopard, her world went dark again. How could she explain it to him?

"I think I hear something over there," she said, pointing in the direction of the snow leopard. "Like a snow leopard or something."

Mr. L peered out in that direction. "I didn't hear anything. But there's something shining over there."

"Is it a snow leopard?"

"Well, it kind of looks like one…"

The snow leopard was calling out to Emmy with its eyes. It stood up and circled once, eager to be followed. "We need to follow it," Emmy said. Her vision made a path to the snow leopard, so letting go of Mr. L's hand she set off full speed across the tundra, weaving in and out of the trees; Mr. L close behind her.

The snow leopard was happy she'd given chase, wagged his tail and then jogged off, looking behind to see if she kept up. The snow leopard eventually slowed and turned a corner past the trees behind a cliff wall. Once the snow leopard was out of sight, Emmy was blind once again. "I lost it," she said.

Mr. L grabbed her coat and turned her to face him. "I thought you said you were blind!"

"I… I used my hearing… that snow leopard…"

"Was none of business!" he released her, causing her to fall to the ground. "You lied to me."

"Mr. L…"

"You navigated perfectly well through those trees!" Before he could say another word, Emmy had reached out and placed her hand over his mouth, slightly messing up his mustache. "Be quiet or we're both going to die!"

She moved her hand and Mr. L smoothed his mustache back out. There was a swishing noise up above the cliff wall, and a few gray rocks fell gracefully down.

Suddenly Bowser was the only thing Mr. L could see. The great koopa king leapt down from his clown car, craftily hidden behind the towering cliffs.

"Bowser," Mr. L said contemptuously.

"Luigi! Glad I could…" Bowser stopped before he went any further. Luigi was different. Mr. L stood before him now, Luigi's alter ego, along with Emmy, the girl who'd betrayed him. "Mr. L!" Bowser corrected himself.

Mr. L tipped his hat. "Bowser… what a _pleasure_ it is to see you."

Emmy backed up against one of the cliff walls and put herself in a bubble. Mr. L would get rid of Bowser for her. But she needed to trick Bowser and talk to him. And with Mr. L hanging around, that didn't seem very possible.

And the very snow leopard she'd thought for just a moment was on her side had tricked her.

* * *

A/N: The line: "Just because you're in red doesn't mean you're strong. Have at you!" is copyright Nintendo, and is not my work.


	21. The Valley of the Trees

A/N: Short! Sorry about that, but I felt like I needed to put something up. Okay, remember the shimmering wolf? It's now a snow leopard. I'll go back and change that in the previous chapter.

I thought I'd share a really cool video with you. The link's on my profile, and its basically a video of a whole bunch of Mario game clips put together to look like a movie trailer. Kudos to whoever made that!

Enjoy!

* * *

Bowser took two menacing steps forward and looked at Emmy through her golden bubble. "Traitor..." he whispered to her. He turned to Mr. L. "And you! Why are you here?"

"To start an empire," Mr. L replied. "And since you're the first to get in my way, then you'll be the first to go. Have at you!"

Mr. L sprang into the air above Bowser's head, just barely missing the swipe of the koopa's giant hand. He landed behind him and grabbed him by the tail. He began to swing the giant Koopa King by his tail and then shot him out at the cliff wall.

Bowser dug his claws in the cliff rock at the impact, and then jumped back at Mr. L, hitting him against other side of the cliff wall.

With no clear idea of how the battle was going, Emmy released herself from her bubble and then began to feel her way out of the hollow where the fight was taking place. Bowser noticed and smiled, making his way over towards her.

Mr. L noticed too, and then dodged in front of her, unleashing his thunderhand. "Get back, Emmy!" he yelled. She thought quickly. She needed to talk to Bowser, but how was that going to be possible with Mr. L?

Struck down, Bowser roared. With her fixed point, Emmy ran towards the sound, as Mr. L tried to stop her. "Are you crazy?" he yelled.

Emmy stopped in front of Bowser. "Knock Mr. L out, we need to talk." Bowser looked up at her and then grabbed her with his giant hand, rising up from the snow.

"What have you done, Emmy?" Mr. L asked furiously. He built up as much energy as he could and fired it at Bowser. The green lightening hit Bowser, sending him into the cliff wall. Emmy fell to the ground, and Bowser swiped her out of the way.

Emmy didn't see Mr. L ran towards Bowser and jumped, only to be met by the back of Bowser's hand, nor did she see Mr. L slam into the cliff wall head first and get knocked out. But she heard the sound of the impact, and the silence that followed.

"He's out, now what?" Bowser asked.

"I didn't betray you. I've tricked them…"

Mr. L began to groan.

"Meet me in the middle of the night," Bowser said, jumping back up the cliff wall.

"But, I'm blind."

"Too bad for you, then." She heard the rocks crack as he pulled himself up the rock wall with his claws. The sound of the clown car as if flew away rang in Emmy's ears, and she listened closely to see where Mr. L was.

And then there was that snow leopard again, shimmering, on the other side of the valley through the trees, just waiting to be chased again. "What do you want?" she grumbled, then realized that her vision extended farther from the snow leopard, it led to Mr. L. Her eyes rested on his limp body, and she ran over quickly to check if he was alright. He was breathing, at least.

She looked back over to the snow leopard, who was calling out to her once more. She put Mr. L into a power bubble, then flinched, as she heard the crunching of snow, like footsteps.

She spun around to see darkness again, but the sound of breathing was evident. "Emmy!"

Mario's voice rang out like a bell. "Is Luigi alright?"

Looking back at Mr. L, she said, "He looks fine. But I'm not sure. Did you see Bowser?"

"Just barely," Peach said. "We saw him and had a feeling he was heading for you. We followed just in case. Are you okay?"

Emmy nodded. "Does anyone see that snow leopard over there?" she asked, pointing at the shimmering snow leopard, now walking in circles, anxious.

"You can see?" Mario asked.

"Yes we saw it, why?" Peach replied.

"Everything is dark but for what the snow leopard wants me to see, or at least that's what I think. I can see Mr. L, but when I turn to look at you, you disappear."

"My fire works in this valley," Mario said. "There must be something different about it."

"No toxins," Peach said. "Maybe Luigi will return to his normal self?"

"Even if this valley has no toxins, it won't be for a day or two until he does. That's what Lorenzo said, at least."

"We don't have any time to spare," Emmy said. "You two should get going. Mr. L and I will meet you in the far north."

"We're not leaving you here with him!" Peach said. "He's dangerous!"

"But he thinks I'm on his side, and I've already encouraged him to go to the north. He thinks its perfect for building and ruling an empire. We'll meet you there, I promise."

The silence that followed proved Mario and Peach's uncertainty, but they finally answered, "Alright. We'll continue straight north. If we don't meet you within two days of our leaving the mountains, we're going to go look for you."

"Sounds fine," Emmy said. "Don't worry, Mario. I'll take care of your brother."

Mario and Peach gave one final look at Mr. L, then set off across the tundra towards the north.

The snow leopard was still waiting, so Emmy walked towards it, with Mr. L floating beside her in a power bubble.

The snow leopard stayed in its place this time, by a frozen pool of water. Emmy set Mr. L down and then sat down next to the snow leopard. "Are you helping me, or just tricking to trick me?" Emmy asked it. She reached her hand out to pet the snow leopard. Her hand passed through his head, and she withdrew it.

"You're not a snow leopard, are you?" The snow leopard didn't respond, just blinked its dark eyes, and as Mr. L began to stir, the snow leopard disappeared, along with her sight.

_

* * *

_

Where am I? What… Emmy?

Luigi looked up at Emmy. "Emmy," he said. "It's you. I… why am I wearing a mask?" Luigi peeled off the black mask that covered his face.

Emmy smiled. "Luigi?"

"Yeah?" His voice had returned to its carefree cheerfulness.

"Oh, it's really you!"

"What? Why wouldn't it be me?"

"Well…"

Luigi stood up and looked around. _What's happened? Where are Mario and Peach?_ And then suddenly things changed again. He felt his face. His mask was gone.

After placing it on his face, he looked at Emmy. "What happened? Where's Bowser, and how did I get here?"

"Luigi… are you okay?"

"Luigi? I am Mr. L, in case you forgot."

Her heart sank. Just when she thought Luigi had returned, she was faced with the challenge of traveling with the arrogant Mr. L, again.

"If you really want to know," she said angrily, "I saved you. Bowser knocked you out, and then I attacked him like I did to you before. I hit him hard enough to make him leave, but we need to watch out."

"If you hadn't chased after that leopard, we wouldn't have to ever seen him! I'm not listening to you anymore. We're going north, and that is the _only _place we'll be going. I don't care what you say." Mr. L yanked Emmy by the arm and up the slope out of the valley.

* * *

The moment Bowser arrived, an old magikoopa wearing purple robes and red-framed glasses made her way over to the clown car and waited as Bowser hopped out.

"What, Kammy?" Bowser asked her.

Kammy adjusted her glassed. "I saw the whole thing. And I think I discovered something you would like to be aware of."

They walked out of the garage and into the main hallway of the castle. "Emmy had a strange bubble around her," Kammy said. "So I looked into it, and I found some people here who know her."

Bowser stayed silent, wondering what in the world Kammy would be talking about. She led them into a room, where an older couple was sitting up against a wall, holding each other. Bowser knew them. He'd kidnapped them long ago, hoping they would have the same powers their child would: the power to control power stars. Of course Bowser could control the power stars, but only with huge machines that took time and energy to build and upkeep.

"So, you know Emmy?" Bowser asked them. "Well, do you?"

"We don't know who that is," the woman said.

Kammy raised her wand. "Don't make us force it out of you."

The man looked at his wife, and then said to Kammy. "Emmy is our daughter. Please, don't hurt her. She's done nothing to hurt you!"

Bowser narrowed his eyes. "That Lota tricked me! She said she'd help me get rid of Mario, but now what is she doing? She's working with him against me." He walked out of the room. "I want to speak to you alone, Kammy."

They closed the door. "You must speak to her tonight," Kammy said. "I will go with you. It is the only way to make sure that she is telling the truth. But she is the one we sought out before, that's for sure."

"Excellent," Bowser said. "If she really does tell me the truth, then we'll have Mario and his brother out of way, and then I can finally take over the Mushroom Kingdom, and this world."

Kammy narrowed her eyes at him. "You must consider the possibility that she is lying to you, however. You cannot be naïve when it comes to this."

"Naïve? Me?"

"Well, we'll find out tonight."


	22. Craig Cooly

A/N: Well... the end of this story is drawing closer... which is good because for some reason I'm getting kind of sick of it. I hate the way Emmy turned out, even she gets on my nerves. And the whole scene in here with Mr. L and Emmy is just awkward for some reason.

Anyways, enjoy!

* * *

CHAPTER 22: Craig Cooly

Mario couldn't keep his mind off his brother. Luigi, Mr. L now, was beginning to get in the way. He regretted leaving him with Emmy. They should have traveled as one. As for the crazy man they'd seen so many days ago, he was beginning to follow them incessantly. He never got too close, but it seemed he couldn't be far enough away.

The man had been known as Craig Cooly. The man was very misanthropic, staying away from people, engrossing himself in the world of things and animals and plants. Humans interested him, of course, the way they behaved bewildered him, yet he could hardly speak to any of his own kind.

He lived in the Coha Desert, then began to travel across the small portion of the world he knew. First to the Fuzzy Forest, studying the habits of kijas and even a few of the hobgoblins there, and then to the land of Seria. He lived in a small town up in Seria called Locke. It was there he'd heard about the mountains.

There were no animals or plants or things in the mountains he could obsess over, but it was the toxins this time that enthralled him. He wanted to study them, take a sample of the air, and then study it there. But he didn't listen to the pleas of the inhabitants of the town. They warned him of the air, how if he went blind he'd never find his way back, if he became paralyzed, and so on.

He didn't think anything would happen to him. He would be perfectly fine. And he was… for a while. The toxins eventually grabbed a hold of him, making him think crazy for a day or two until he finally lost it all. He destroyed his things in a fire, then ran off to the valley with the trees and plants and animals. The valley with things. Things to obsess over and watch out for.

He lived there, never bathing, eating the animals that lived in that valley, and only for a short amount of time in that valley did he get his sanity back. It was short-lived, however, and Craig Cooly ceased to exist.

Peach turned around to face Mario. "Have you noticed that guy keeps following us?" she asked, looking back to see the man a mile or so off.

Mario nodded. "Don't look back at him. It might make things worse. Maybe he's just curious and doesn't want to hurt us."

"Do you think it's a mistake that we left Luigi with Emmy?"

"They can take care of themselves. Mr. L is smart, like Luigi, although he is very sinister… I'm sure they'll be fine."

Peach wasn't convinced. "I wonder how they're doing."

* * *

Mr. L looked next to him at Emmy. "It's a shame that someone as beautiful as you can't see this world. It's beautiful, but I must say, it's not nearly as beautiful as you."

"Excuse me?"

Mr. L smiled and continued walking.

Emmy yanked her hand out of his. "What's wrong with you?"

_This blind girl is feisty_, he thought.

Night was when Emmy was most concerned. They had no tent or shelter, besides what seemed like the tiniest cave that Mr. L could find.

There was no way she could meet Bowser with Mr. L in the same cave. He'd probably catch her and then never trust her again. She tried to focus her mind on other things and fall asleep. There was nothing else to do…

_She was back home in the Macachi Jungle. The people were walking around, helping each other build a hut or a fire. Lucas was there. He waved to her and… who was that?_

_A small koopa looking creature walked out from behind a hut, wearing purple robes and red glasses. She looked around and then spotted Emmy, and walked towards her. _

"_There you are," she said, though not very happily. "Happy that you can see now?"_

_Emmy nodded. "And who are you?"_

"_The name is Kammy. You're having a dream. Bowser wants to talk to you. And don't worry about the whole blind thing, I'll lead you down. Alright?"_

_Emmy nodded._

The dream was over as soon as it began, and the vivid colors faded. "Luigi is asleep, we must hurry," a whisper said. Emmy sat up and reached out, grabbing onto Kammy's hand.

They walked out of the cave, and then down the ragged slope that led up to it. Mr. L had led her up the slope, but getting down was much harder. "Careful, now," Kammy said. Emmy placed each foot slowly, but finally made it down.

"Evening," Bowser said.

It was silent, as all three contemplated what would be the smartest move. "We know you're a Lota," Kammy said, breaking the silence.

"Well, say something!" Bowser said.

Emmy searched her mind quickly. "I… well, to be honest, I was always on your side. No, really! Listen. Mario and Peach were catching up quick to me, and I ran out of fuel in my shuttle. So, I stopped at the Coha desert to get some fuel, but they wouldn't let me. Luigi and I got captured by the Cohas, and Mario and Peach rescued us. Before they did, I told Luigi that you had kidnapped my parents, and that I really wanted revenge on you. So after Mario and Peach rescued us I told them, and we've been traveling like this since.

"See? I'm tricking them! When we get to your lair then we can seal all three of them in the center of the universe!"

Emmy couldn't see the warning glance that Kammy shot to Bowser, or Bowser's sheer disappointment.

"Fine," he said finally, much to Kammy's outrage. "I'll see you when you get there. And why are you blind?"

"There are toxins in the air. I went blind, Mario lost his fire ability, and Luigi went crazy. Peach hasn't had anything happen to her that we know of…"

"BOWSER!"

Up on the slope was the familiar figure of Mr. L himself, staring down at Bowser and Kammy. "You're kidnapping her, aren't you?"

Bowser smiled, trying to contain his laughter. He grabbed Emmy. "Yes, I am."

Emmy played along. "Mr. L! Help!"

Mr. L pointed Bowser. "No one kidnaps her. Have at you!" He sprang off his slope, and Kammy shot magic at him as he reached the ground. Mr. L dodged, then shot lightening at Bowser.

Not being the swiftest of creatures, the koopa king was hit hard to the ground. Kammy retaliated again, shooting magic at Mr. L, who only dodged again.

Bowser stood up and roared, still holding Emmy, who was now very sorry that Mr. L had shown up. Mr. L shot up into the air, and landed painfully on Bowser's hand, causing him to release Emmy. Mr. L caught Emmy as she fell, and Bowser backed up towards his clown car.

"Retreat!" Bowser yelled, and he and Kammy ran to the clown car, hopped inside and set off. Mr. L watched them leave.

"Uh, Mr. L?" Emmy asked. "Can you put me down now?"

"Of course," Mr. L said smoothly. _Why must he be so…annoying?_ Emmy thought, as she felt her way back up the slope, Mr. L watching her.

* * *

"Why must I always be fooled like this?!" Bowser exclaimed, jumping out of the clown car with Kammy.

"She knew you had her parents; that's a start," Kammy said. "But there is no way for us to trust her. Instead, we must trick her back. She said she would bring Mario, Luigi and Peach back here. So, when she does, we capture them, and…" She whispered the next part in Bowser's ear.

"I always wonder why I keep you around, Kammy, and then you come up with genius plans like this…"

* * *

As the morning progressed, the man once known as Craig Cooly continued to follow Mario and Peach more closely. They'd grown anxious over his proximity to them, and it wasn't until they reached what looked like, finally, the end of the cold mountains.

"Mario!" Peach said happily, rushing ahead and peering over the mountains ahead. "Look! You can even see the—"

Peach never got to finish her sentence as a brown shaped flied at her, pummeling her down to the ground. Screaming, she crawled away from the crazy man, and then reached for her umbrella.

Mario ran to her rescue, pulling out his own hammer and hitting Craig Cooly in the side. Craig was shot sideways, but got up quickly and looked at the two. "You lied!"

"We're almost to the mountains and out of your way…" Mario began to explain.

"Liar! That lightening man is with the blind girl… they've been talking to the koopa! Ha! You're all liars… Every one of you…"

"Listen, please, we're not on his side, we're tricking him…"

"Tricking me! I won't have it!" The deranged man lept at them again, but this time Peach had her umbrella out and swung it at the man.

Mario and Peach stared in shock and disbelief as Craig was sent up into the air and out of sight. "…Wow," Mario finally said.

"Did I hit him too hard?" Peach asked.

"Uh, maybe just a bit…" Mario replied. "I don't think I've ever seen you shoot a tennis ball that hard. Hey! Maybe that's how the toxins affect you! They make you stronger."

"Really? Well, too bad its not going to last much longer, considering we're practically there."

Mario sighed, and adjusted his cap. "Thank the stars for that."

They continued their hike through the mountains, until finally the ground beneath was no longer covered with snow, but night black ground that looked as if it had been formed by lava.

They had reached the end of the world.


	23. The Spirit Guardians

A/N: Well... Nothing really exciting... BUT THE OFFICE IS COMING BACK TONIGHT!! yay! for those of you who don't know, my penname comes from the office! pam + jim equals jam! jamfan! I am very excited! Ahem Anyways, on with the story!

* * *

CHAPTER 23: The Spirit Guardians

The air got warmer faster than Mario and Peach had expected, and they were now forced to wear their extra layers over their arms as they carried them. The sky above them was dark and foreboding, as if it knew that Bowser's intentions meant trouble. Bowser's lair fit in very well with the lava that surrounded them, made out of lava rock that looked slightly unstable. Lava flowed through the middle of it, and Mario and Peach found themselves at a loss of what to do next.

"Well," Peach said. "Where should we wait for them?" They looked around. Mr. L and Emmy were no where in sight. Mario shrugged. For the first time in a long time, he had no clue what to do.

* * *

"We did it?" Emmy asked, trying to keep up with Mr. L. She could hear the cracking of the earth as lava pulsed from it.

"Of course we did," Mr. L said, looking out at the lava-filled land. "Well, based on what you told me about this place, I think its okay. I could do better."

"What do you see?"

"Lava, and lots of it. There's a somewhat hastily built lava formation at the center. A lair, perhaps?"

"Yeah, there should be a lair."

"Have you been here before?"

Emmy nodded. "Yes, before I was blind. Bowser is here, as you know."

"I did not know! Are you lying to me? Are you trying to tell me this was a trap?"

"No, Mr. L. I-I've been here before, you see, because… well… uh, I went here on business. To see if… if _I _could rule the world here! Eh, don't you see! You and I have the same ambitions! And now, together, we'll rule the world!"

* * *

Peach looked at the two figures arguing at the top of a barren hill. "Look! It's them. Get their attention somehow."

"They're at least a mile away," Mario pointed out. "Can you throw something?" He reached into his bag and brought out a small plate.

Peach grabbed it and, after some careful aiming, chucked the plate at them.

* * *

Mr. L smiled at what Emmy said. _So, that's what she's been doing the whole time…_ he thought. And then he kissed her.

Suddenly Emmy's lips were pressed against Mr. L's. _WHAT THE?! _she thought, but she couldn't get herself to get Mr. L off of her. _This isn't Luigi!_ she told herself, and then pushed him away. Pain shot through her right arm, and she instantly suspected Mr. L.

"Just because I pushed you away doesn't mean you can punch my arm!" she yelled angrily at Mr. L.

"I didn't punch you," he replied, with a smug look on his face. He picked up the shiny silver plate that had hit Emmy in the arm, and then looked out to see where it had come from. Mario and Peach, two lone figures standing at the base of the mountains, and out where the lava was. He should have known. He narrowed his eyes. "How dare they hit you," Mr. L said to himself. "Now they'll pay."

Mr. L grabbed Emmy by her hand, and pulled her slowly down the mountain. Emmy rolled her eyes inwardly as she was led down the hill and towards Mario and Peach. "Where are we going now?"

Mr. L ignored her question. "Can you keep up if I run?"

"Yeah, sure. Why?" Mr. L took off running, and Emmy found herself struggling to keep up.

* * *

Mario held out his hammer, his eyebrows raised in concern. He hadn't seen anything of what had happened with Mr. L and Emmy, and neither had Peach. "Are you sure?" Peach asked. Mario nervously nodded, as his brother's alter-ego ran straight towards him.

Mario took off at Mr. L, who then halted and shoved Emmy aside as Mario approached. Mario raised his hammer, but Mr. L prepared and did a super jump into the air. Mario looked up as his hammer pounded through thin air, then slid out of the way as Mr. L came crashing down where Mario had been just seconds before.

"Emmy!" Mario yelled. "Get out of here if you can!"

_Not good. Not good. Not good._ Emmy thought to herself over and over. _Power bubble, or not? __Why did I have to be the one to lose my sight!_ Frustrated, she cast out her power bubble anyways, which included Mario, Mr. L and herself.

"Stop the fighting!" Emmy said. "Who did I get in here?"

"Me!" both brothers shouted out, who had not stopped fighting, despite Emmy's request. Mario crashed into Emmy in the floating bubble, and Mr. L became outraged. Hearing his anger, and listening to Mario's warning, Emmy released the bubble and sent all three of them crashing to the ground.

Peach ran over to Mr. L and held up her umbrella. "You do _not_ want to know what will happen if I hit you with this," she said.

Mr. L held up his hands. "Of course not," he said smoothly.

"Luigi," Mario said. "Mr. L, I mean…"

Everyone seemed at a loss for words. "Well," Mr. L said finally, breaking the silence. "I must say that I have competition." Still holding his hands up in the air, he walked over to Emmy and bumped into her, letting her now where she was. "But now that we've made it this far, we must continue." He pointed at Mario. "Have at you!"

Several things happened at once. Mr. L prepared to spring into the air, just as Mario and Peach made a run towards him. Emmy shoved Mr. L to the ground and then, put him in his own little power bubble up in the air. Mario and Peach skidded to a stop.

"Hey," Mr. L said. "Let me down, Emmy."

"No."

"Emmy, let me down."

Emmy hung her head. "I lied to you Mr. L. I'm on their side."

"You… I trusted you!"

"What now?" Peach asked Mario, who felt completely awkward around his brother's alter ego. "We… We should knock him out," he finally replied.

"You wouldn't dare," Mr. L growled at them.

"I'll do it," Mario said. Peach gasped, but Mario gave her a look that told her he would be fine. He raised his hammer up to the power bubble. "Any time, Emmy."

Just as anxious as Mario, but still frustrated she wouldn't be able to see what happened, Emmy released Mr. L from his cage.

Mario swung his hammer hard, but not hard enough to do more damage than necessary, and Mr. L went flying sideways, landing slightly on his head. He lay still.

"Luigi?" Emmy asked. And then she could see again. _It's probably that snow leopard again…_ she thought, as her sight was still limited like it had been before. But this time it was a shimmering otter, golden brown, that crept across the terrain.

Emmy realized suddenly, who the snow leopard and otter finally were. She'd heard so much about them growing up, and now, they had finally come to her. "Spirit guardians," she said out loud. The otter drew nearer, and then stopped when it reached Mr. L, as if protecting him.

"What?" Mario asked.

"Spirit guardians! From Didajne, why didn't I recognize them when I first saw them?! They come to those who truly need their guidance. In the tribe, we believe that those truly destined for greatness will see their guardians beside them. You see the otter, right?"

"Yes," Peach replied. "So, that's Luigi's spirit guardian?"

"Yeah! And mine is a snow leopard. I wonder what your and Mario's is. You'll probably see them later. Is Mr. L knocked out?"

* * *

They set up a small campsite as far away fromt eh mountains as they wished. They were tired of being affected of the toxins: Mario frustrated with his fire, Emmy blind, and Mr. L.

"How long are we going to have to wait for these to wear off?" Peach asked. Emmy shrugged. "I hope it's soon."

"Has anyone noticed how dark it is here?" Mario asked. Emmy was blind, so she simply shrugged.

"There isn't any sun," Peach pointed out.

"But then what's giving off all that light?"

"It's the lava," Emmy said. "It's bright enough to replace the sun. It looks weird, doesn't it? It freaked me out the first time I saw it."

"How do we know what time of day it is, then?"

"We don't."

* * *

They decided to rest, Mr. L now dozing silently in the corner of the tent, and Mario staying up on guard. Emmy and Peach were sound asleep as well.

Mario's eyes perked up when he saw a shadow move across the tent wall. The shadow passed along the back and then continued to move until a giant cat-like figure was sitting at the entrance of the tent.

Bowser?

The beast was too small and too oddly shaped to be Bowser. Mario carefully unzipped the tent door to see a great lion. His mane was light and his fur dark, and he looked at Mario with gentle eyes.

The lion stood up and began to walk away.

"Are you my spirit guardian?" Mario asked. The lion looked back at Mario, blinked and then continued slowly forward.

"Wait! Where are you going? Are you saying I should follow you?"

The lion just continued, and looked up to the lair in the middle of the lava. "I can't leave them here with Luigi!"

The lion stopped and looked back besides Mario, at the golden-brown otter that was lying next to the tent. The otter squeaked and then pointed to lion, and then nodded at the tent. "Are you saying… he'll be fine?"

The otter let out another reassuring squeak and then nodded its head at the lion. The otter was telling him to go. "You're sure?" Mario asked, unsure. The otter squeaked louder and then gave him a look that told him to go.

Mario took one last glance inside the tent.

All three were still asleep, so Mario looked at the otter and said, "If something happens, I'm blaming you." The otter nodded, agreeing.

Mario then walked over to the lion, and followed him towards the lair.

* * *

Emmy sat up and stretched, looking around her in the tent. Mario wasn't there. "Mario? Wait, I can see?!"

She looked down her hands and legs. They were there. Mr. L was there, Peach was there. Her sight wasn't limited, and finally the toxins had left her. But now Mario was missing. She walked out of the tent and looked around to see Luigi's spirit guardian lying next to the tent.

"Where's mine?" she asked jokingly, but the otter only stared blankly at her. "Where's Mario?"

The otter ponted at the lair, and then squeaked. "Oh…" She ran back into the tent to see Mr. L sitting up, staring at Emmy. "Um, hi, Mr. L. It's… good to see you up…"

"What?" he asked. "Why did you call me Mr. L?"

"Luigi!" she screamed, jumping down next to him and giving him a bear hug. "I'm so glad its you! You've missed so much though. How's your head?"

She let go of him and looked at the purple bruise on the side of his head. "It's okay," he responded. "Where are we? I don't remember anything…"

"We made it to the far north. The toxins turned you into Mr. L. It was kind of scary, actually."

"Oh no… Was it bad?"

Emmy smiled. "There are some things I will tell and some I won't. But you kidnapped me and I tricked you into going north. You thought you were going to rule the world!" Emmy burst into laughter.

"I'm sorry. Did I really do that?"

"Aw, Weegie, it's fine. It was kind of fun actually. But hey, guess what? I tricked Bowser." She reached onto his face and peeled off the black mask. "Good riddance to that thing." She grabbed his hand. "C'mere, there's something I want to show you." She led him outside and showed him the golden brown otter, explaining to him what it was and that they all had their own spirit guardians.

"Another thing…" Emmy said. "Mario is missing. He was supposed to keep guard over us all just in case Mr. L woke up…"

"Well, we should find him, then. Let's wake Peach." They went back inside the tent and woke Peach up. "Peach!" Luigi said. "Mario's run off and we need to go find him."

"I see you're back to normal, Luigi. That's good. If Mario ran off than he probably did it because he knew what he was doing," Peach said. "We should probably just stay here in case he comes back."

"What if he doesn't come back?"

"Then we'll go find him."

"I'm going," Luigi decided. "Are going with me, Emmy?"

She shrugged. "Yeah, sure, why not. You'll keep camp here, Peach?" Peach slowly nodded. "I still think it's a mistake to go after him. He is _Mario_ after all."

Without any more hesitation, Luigi and Emmy left the tent, only to see their way blocked by a snow leopard and a otter. "Are you coming with us?" Luigi asked.

Neither spirit guardian moved. Emmy walked far away from the otter, but the snow leopard stepped in front of her. She tried to move again, but the leopard was always in her way. "You're not going to let me go, are you?" she asked her spirit guardian. The snow leopard stared at her.

Luigi was almost scared of his guardian. "Are you going to let me pass?" he asked, and the otter lowered its head so that its glaring eyes were level with Luigi's.

"Okay! Mario's fine, I guess I'll just stay here," Luigi said.

"You're not going?" Emmy asked.

"They're not going to let us leave if they don't want us to, are they? Peach is right, he's my bro! He'll be fine."

"Eh, whatever you say," Emmy said, and now there was nothing left for the three of them to do but wait for Mario's return.

* * *

A/N: I need help! I have no idea what to make Peach's spirit guardian! I was thinking dolphin and then I was like no, wait, that swims... in... water... And also, I'm not quite sure I like the idea of a otter being Luigi's. ALL suggestions are greatly appreciated!

EDIT: Thank you to Torta della pizza for the ideas, I'll take one, but I went with Luigi's spirit guardian as a otter, they're awkward but kind creatures.

EDIT EDIT: Can otters point?


	24. Mario's Discovery

A/N: Very very short! But I like this one anyways. I put up a teaser for a story I'll be working on later called Back to Brooklyn. Check it out and tell me what you think... or not.

Enjoy, read, and please, please, please... review!!

* * *

CHAPTER 24: Mario's Discovery

The lion ran quickly ahead of Mario, but the journey was nothing to the adventurous plumber. The lion stopped and looked back at Mario. They were very close to the lair now, and the campsite was very far behind them. Mario followed the lion as he crept low to the ground and then disappeared into the ground.

Mario looked at the hole in the dried up lava that the lion had gone into and then went in after. He went in feet first, sliding down slowly through the narrow passageway. He landed besides a river of flowing lava that was so hot that he had to take his cap off and fan himself with it for a few seconds. The lion was beside him, and led him away from the flowing river, of which only a part was visible; the rest disappeared behind a rock wall.

The lion led him slowly away from the lava and the tunnel they were in eventually fanned out into a much larger room. The lion sat down in the empty room and looked at Mario.

"I'm confused," Mario said. "Why are you showing me this?" The lion didn't respond so Mario instead began walking over to stand by his spirit guardian, who then vanished. "Hey!" Mario yelled. "Come back here!"

Suddenly Mario plummeted through the floor, and landed in another narrow tunnel, in which the lion was waiting. "You again," Mario said, but followed the lion down a much narrower passageway. The lion, no longer being able to fit in the tunnel, vanished, and Mario continued forward to fall down another sliding piece of rock.

Standing up, Mario walked forward to see that the tunnel he was in now had a small opening at the bottom end of it. Getting down on his hands and knees, Mario looked around the room in front of him. He could see two empty plates with a few scraps of food, and there was a caged door at the front of them room which he couldn't see past. Mario started to push himself out of the tunnel and into the room, but froze when he heard the sound of approaching footsteps

Mario shuffled farther back into the tunnel, hiding himself as two koopas shoved two humans into the room. The koopas left the couple in silence, and Mario watched as the woman leaned on her husband's shoulder and cried.

"It's okay, Jena," he said. "It'll be alright. If Emmy really is coming, then there's nothing we can do to stop her. She'll be fine…" _Emmy's parents…_Mario thought. Mario was about to rush out into the room, but something latched onto his leg. He looked down and saw the lion lightly clamped onto his leg.

"Let go," Mario whispered as quietly as he could. But the lion only stared at him, and kept its grip. Mario knew the lion wouldn't let him go. But he wondered… if only they could get down here and get Emmy's parents out without Bowser's knowledge….

"Fine, you win," Mario whispered to the lion, which let go and stood up. Mario walked past it and scrabbled pack up the slippery rock, then through the narrow passageway, and then jumped up back into the room connected to the tunnel with the flowing lava river. Walking out of the room, Mario saw his spirit guardian waiting for him.

The lion walked over to the lava river and then pointed a paw at it, as if it had some significance. "What about it?" Mario asked. The lion looked back through the tunnel, and then at the lava river again.

Mario suddenly realized. The lava river was connected to wherever the lava was coming from, and if anything was to happen, and the river overflowed, it would have no place to go but down the tunnel system to where Emmy's parents were.

"No," Mario said. "I should have saved them!" He ran off back down the tunnel, but his guardian jumped in the way.

"That is not your task," a voice whispered in Mario's ear, and he guessed it to be his guardian's.

"Then what is? If the lava overflows, they'll die! And if I save them now, then we can all go home."

"The journey does not end with Emmy's parents."

Mario was beginning to get frustrated. "Then what does it end with?"

"Self-discovery."

Mario's head was suddenly filled with thoughts; thoughts of his brother, and his father whom he never thought he'd see again, and of this world and why he'd never heard of it before… Why did everything have to be a mystery to him?

"So you see…" the voice said. "You must also go through self-discovery."

Mario had always thought his life was plain… up until this point, it was just save the princess, and be a good brother and friend. And now, there was so much more to do.

"Don't tell Emmy about this. You will be the only one to know. So therefore it is your responsibility when the time comes, to remember this place.

"You are not plain, Mario. You must always remember: you are destined for great things."

* * *

"I see him!" Luigi said, pointing into the distance. A great beast strode beside Mario as he returned from his own little adventure.

As Mario approached his friends, he noticed that Luigi and Emmy seemed back to normal, save the small fact that Luigi's cap still had a backwards 'L' on it. Luigi's otter crawled up onto his shoulder.

"Where were you?" Peach asked. "We were kind of worried."

"Cool spirit guardian," Emmy said, her snow leopard eyeing the great lion.

Mario looked into Emmy's eyes. He'd seen her parents, but he couldn't tell them what he'd seen. "Thanks. He led me away… I'm not supposed to tell you."

"Right…" Emmy said jokingly. "I don't know about you guys, but what do you say we leave camp here and head on over to Bowser's place?"

"Shouldn't we plan it out?" Mario asked.

"Well, I thought we'd just wing it." Emmy's spirit guardian nudged her and then gave her a look. "Fine, fine… we'll plan. But let's go inside the tent, it's burning out here."

They all went back inside the tent, and after Emmy explained to them what she'd said to Bowser, including the fiasco with Mr. L (Luigi's face turned red right after), they all started coming up with a plan.

"Well, I think we should all get in pretty easy," Luigi began. "Emmy will have us as prisoners in her power bubbles and then she'll hand us over to Bowser and then…oh, wait…"

"I like the first part of that idea," Peach said. "But instead of handing us over to Bowser, we'd jump from the bubbles and Mario and Luigi can fight Bowser, while Emmy and I search the lair for her parents."

"Sounds good enough," Emmy said.

"Actually," Mario said. "I think I'll help search the lair…"

"But Mario!" Luigi said. "You're the one who's fought Bowser the most! You have to fight him."

"Well, I just thought that I could take a break from fighting, you know. You and Emmy could fight. You need some of the glory too, Luigi."

Luigi smiled. "Thanks, bro. Are you alright with fighting, Emmy?"

Emmy nodded. "Sounds good to me. I think we should leave now."

"Yeah…" Peach said. "But what about our spirit guardians? Or I guess I should say yours."

"Don't worry, Peach," Emmy said. "I'm sure yours will show up soon enough." Emmy looked next to her at the snow leopard. "You can disappear for us, can't you?"

The snow leopard, lion, and otter all nodded, although none of them cared to demonstrate. There was a loud whinny outside, and all three spirit guardians ran outside. "Where are you going?" Luigi called after his otter; he'd gotten very attached to it already.

All four humans ran outside to see four spirit guardians together; snow leopard, lion, otter, and a white horse, which appeared to be Peach's spirit guardian. "She's so pretty," Peach said, walking over to her spirit guardian. But before she reached it though, all four disappeared like sand in the wind.

"Well…" Emmy said.

"I think it's a sign to leave, you think?" Mario asked. All four looked ahead to the looming lava lair. Luigi nodded.

The four, sure their campsite would be safe, began to walk towards the lair, Mario's knowledge of Emmy's parents gnawing at his mind.

A/N: Agh!! So close to the end!


	25. With the Help of the Guardians

A/N: Eh... slightly rushed chapter. On a completely different note, anyone want to exchange brawl codes? mine's 4081-5251-5737 nickname me whatever you want, and just pm or review yours to me

On with the show!

* * *

CHAPTER 25: With the Help of the Guardians

"You are Mr. L," Emmy said to Luigi. "And you're _all_ my prisoners!" She lifted Mario, Peach and Luigi up into the air with her power bubble, obviously having fun with their plan. Luigi crossed his arms.

"I don't even know how Mr. L acts, except that he's my complete opposite," Luigi said.

"He points a lot and says 'have at you'," Mario said. "Does that help?"

"I just don't quite understand why you're not fighting Bowser."

"Quiet, guys!" Emmy said to them. "We're really close now. We can't give anything away. Actually, it would be better if you tried to struggle. You know, yell and stuff."

"You'll never get away with this!" Luigi said, pounding his fists against the bubble, making everyone laugh.

The path across the lava-like moat to the castle was brick, extending out far towards the lava fortress in front of them. They walked in silence across the bridge, Mario, Peach and Luigi trying to look as frustrated as possible.

Two koopas standing at guard at the front of the lair nodded to Emmy. "It's about time you showed up," they said. "Bowser's been getting impatient. The throne is straight back and to the…"

"I know where it is," Emmy pointed out, and walked hastily past the two guards. A few twists and turns, walking down stairs, and a few untrustworthy glances from koopas and goombas, and they were face to face with Bowser in the throne room.

It was a silent transaction. Bowser acknowledged Mario, Peach and Luigi as prisoners in Emmy's power bubble, and Emmy acknowledged the fact that she'd held true to her word. "Here they are," Emmy said. "All three of them. And now the world is yours."

"Now, Emmy," Luigi said under his breath.

"Excellent!" Bowser roared. Kammy stood beside his throne looking suspiciously at Emmy, and Mario, Peach and Luigi wondered why Emmy was letting them go yet. "Release them Emmy, I'll make sure they don't get away…"

Emmy nodded, then turned to her prisoners. "I'm so sorry…"

"Emmy, what are you doing? Let us go!" Mario asked quickly as goombas and koopas surrounded them in large numbers. She wasn't following the plan.

And then there was an evil glint in her eyes, a look that made all three shudder. Surely Emmy wasn't going back on her word? "I'm sorry," she said again. "But you're the ones being tricked." She released them into the swarm of goombas and koopas, who overtook them.

Bowser jumped out of his throne, and Kammy smiled. Emmy had kept her word after all. "Take them to separate chambers!" Bowser yelled out. "And make sure they don't get away!"

Luigi's heart felt like it had been ripped out of his rib cage. Emmy had betrayed them? But why? Bowser had her parents, didn't he? Or, was it really all a trick? A trick played out by everyone in the Macachi Tribe, and everyone they'd met. Tears came to Luigi's eyes. He'd even fallen for Emmy, and now she'd stabbed him in the back.

"Luigi!" Luigi turned to the sound of his brother's voice and reached out to him, but the koopas and goombas dragged them apart, sending all three down separate hallways, into separate rooms, confused and lost.

* * *

She'd done it. She'd actually gone through with it in the end. It's not as if she would have followed that plan anyways.

Turning to Bowser in the now very quiet throne room, she smiled at him.

"I know," Bowser said.

"I know too," Emmy replied. "And you will hand them over once this is done, right?"

"That's the agreement, okay. But you follow through first, or else."

"Of course. Mario, Peach and Luigi will disappear, just like that, and you can rule _all_ of the world! How does that sound?"

* * *

Luigi's face collided with brick wall as he was thrown into his dungeon room. He hardly felt it. It was a trick. It had to be. Emmy wouldn't do something that stupid. She was smart. She knew what she was doing, right?

Luigi tried every thought possible to try and cheer himself up and convince himself that it would be fine. Suddenly his otter was at his side and looking up at his teary face.

"What do you want?" Luigi asked, wiping away the tears from his face. The otter squeaked and then ran to the other side, pointing at a single brick in the wall. Confused, Luigi made his way over to his spirit guardian and touched the brick lightly.

The otter squeaked even louder, and Luigi pushed the brick. It moved back into the wall.

There was an empty space.

Luigi grabbed the brick with the edges of his fingers and began to pull it back through, and eventually got it out. "Whoa," Luigi said, as he looked into the empty space and saw a single Luma, one of the star children from the observatory in space. The yellow Luma was happy to see Luigi as it jumped and floated out of its hiding spot to Luigi.

"What are you doing here?"

"Luigi!" Luma said. "Rosalina sent me here to hide! She had a feeling something like this would happen."

"What do you mean?"

"Rosalina watches over the Lota, just like she watches over all the stars. It is her duty as well. I have so much to tell you!"

* * *

Mario's lion had reappeared once more, and Mario was quite glad to see it. "She betrayed us," Mario told the lion. "Didn't she?"

The lion gave no answer, just stared straight into Mario's eyes.

* * *

"So, are you sure that you can do this?" Bowser asked Emmy, as she examined the machines using the power of the stars. Emmy nodded.

Each machine had a shimmering glow in the middle of a giant clear orb, the glow being the power stars. Power was being pumped out of the stars, and for some reason, that feeling was reflected in Emmy.

"Turn off the machines," Emmy said.

"We can't turn them off; it's what's keeping the lower rooms free of lava. Turning them off would cause the rivers to overflow," Kammy said.

"How long would it take them to overflow?"

"A day."

"Then turn, them, off." Emmy demanded. "It won't take longer than that. And I will need to see all three prisoners so I know what I am doing."

Kammy walked through the various machines towards Emmy. "You are sealing them in the center of the universe, right? All three of them?"

"Of course! That's why I need to see the prisoners. Out of my way," Emmy said as she shoved her way past Bowser and towards the place where the prisoners were being kept.

* * *

"Rosalina watches over the Lotas?" Luigi asked Luma.

"Yes! It is part of her duty. She gives the Lotas their power, and helps them find their way. There is something else you need to know. Emmy didn't betray you."

Luigi instantly smiled. "I knew it! It just seemed too impossible."

"There's a reason why we know she didn't. Rosalina controls Emmy's power, how strong it is and when she can use it. Only a Lota with good intentions may use their powers. If Emmy had been planning on using her powers against the good of the world, they wouldn't have worked!"

"So Emmy is good!" Just then a knock came at the wooden door of Luigi's holding room, and Emmy burst through the door.

"Luigi!" she said, smiling at him.

He jumped up and hugged her. "Emmy—"

"Luigi, I'm so sorry! I didn't betray you back there; I just didn't see how the plan could work."

"It's okay, I know. This Luma told me." Luigi explained to Emmy who Rosalina was and who the Lumas were, and Emmy explained the machines to Luigi.

"He's using them to harness the power of the stars. For what I don't know. But he said that they were holding in the lava rivers underground. You know, stopping them from flooding the place. But he's turned them off. Now they are convinced that I'm on their side."

"Great work. Now we just need to get out of here unnoticed."

Emmy's eyebrows rose. "Well, to be honest, I was thinking we could keep playing along with this until Bowser has you brought into the machine room to have you sealed away. Let me go check on the others, okay?"

Luigi felt devastated. "You're not going to leave me here alone, are you?"

Emmy smiled. "Of course not," she said, and then she grabbed his face and kissed him, before smiling at him and walking out the door.

Luigi slumped down next to his otter, which stared up at him and let out a whistle. Luigi laughed and cuddled his otter, then waited to be taken from his room.

* * *

Peach knew it was fake the moment it happened. Emmy set Bowser up, and he was taking the bait. And then suddenly before her eyes in the tiny holding room was her white horse. Her spirit guardian.

She walked over to the horse, who trotted over to her side, her hooves clicking on the hard floor. Peach realized as the horse began nodding her head, that she wanted Peach to ride her. Grabbing onto the horse's mane, Peach managed to pull herself up.

Peach was almost knocked off the horse as it reared up and charged its front hooves at the locked wooden door, sending shards of wood flying, and what remained of the door to the ground. The horse ran out of the room amidst shocked goombas, shyguys and koopas, and an even more surprised Emmy.

"Emmy?" Peach called out as the horse ran down the narrow hallway and towards an unknown destination.

"What is a horse doing in here?" koopas asked. "Someone go catch it!"

But no one did. The horse continued on, until it had crashed through another empty room, this time filled with gadgets and screens. The horse stood still and waited for Peach to get off.

"I don't think I ever want to ride you again," Peach said, as she lowered herself off the horse. "Where are we?"

The horse walked over and nudged a laptop looking device. Peach walked over and grabbed it, then opened it up. There was a screen and camera on top and a series of buttons on the bottom. She pocketed it and then looked at her spirit guardian. "That's it?" she asked. The horse nodded its head and Peach jumped back onto the horse, just as Emmy had entered the room and locked the door.


	26. The Final Battle

A/N: Climactic? I think yes. Enjoy! And please, please, please review!

* * *

CHAPTER 26: The Final Battle

Emmy stared in shock as Peach rode by on the shimmering white horse. She had been just about to enter the room when they'd knocked down the door. "We need to follow them!" a koopa yelled, and led the way down the hallway with shy guys and goombas following. Emmy gathered herself and ran towards the front of the mob.

"Excuse me!" she yelled as she pushed her way through.

The koopa tugged on her leg as she walked by. "Do you know which way they went?" he asked. Emmy tricked him and pointed him down another hallway. After the koopa left, Emmy burst into the room where Peach was sitting on top of the white horse.

"What are you doing?" she asked Peach.

Peach blamed her horse. "She's the one who burst out of the room. Did you free Mario and Luigi yet?"

"No… Wait, how did you know what I said to Bowser wasn't true?"

"You're just not the type of person to do that, Emmy."

Emmy smiled. "Thanks, Peach. No, I haven't freed them yet. We might not have much time. I sent the troops the opposite way, so they might take just a while to find us. But here's what I was thinking, I could have you moved out of your room early, say I found and caught you, and then wait until Luigi and Mario are taken from there rooms, and then you and Mario search for my parents and Luigi and I fight Bowser. Sound good?"

Peach nodded and jumped off the horse, as it disappeared like sand in the wind.

"Ready? Let's go." Emmy place Peach in a power bubble and then walked out the door with her prisoner. "I found her!" she yelled, and troops came running from all directions. "Out of my way," Emmy said, shoving her way past them all and into the throne room where Bowser was waiting.

* * *

The lion continued to stare at Mario from across the room. "What do you want me to do?" Mario asked. "There's nothing I can do!" The lion nodded, and Mario became confused. The lion was agreeing with him? "What do you mean…?" he began to ask, but the lion disappeared and the door to his room was opened.

Two hammer brothers rushed over and grabbed him by the arms, but Mario pushed them aside. "I'll walk," he told them. The hammer brothers exchanged looks, but agreed to let Mario walk with them to the throne room.

They led him inside, and Mario looked to see Peach and Luigi already there with Emmy.

"Do you need them restrained?" Bowser asked.

"No," Emmy replied. "This will do just fine." She turned around and faced the three. Mario, still confused about what was going on, received a trustworthy wink from Emmy, and then he understood.

Emmy put her hands together and then raised them up in the air. A golden glow came from across the room, and suddenly powers stars of all sizes floated into the room and into Emmy's hands. Peach was reminded of the time when Emmy had first taken the power stars from the Mushroom Castle, and that it had looked the same way.

Once the stars had disappeared over Emmy's hands, she turned around to face Bowser. "You've drained all their power!"

"How can you even tell?"

"How can you breathe fire?"

"…Touché."

Emmy turned back to her work and formed a small power bubble in her hands. She smiled at her companions and then whipped around and flung her power at Bowser, throwing him off his throne and onto the floor.

Everyone jumped into action. Mario grabbed Peach's hand and they ran toward the nearest door. Luigi ran towards Bowser and Emmy prepared another attack. Kammy waved her wand up in the air, and Kamek shouted orders to his troops. "Hammer brother and shyguys, don't let Mario and Peach get away! Koopas and Goombas, stop Emmy and Luigi!"

The troops did as they were told, but Mario and Peach continued to run out of the room, and down a long curving hallway. They skidded to a halt as troops began to rush towards them, and so they backtracked a ways and went down another.

"We can't hold them off for very long, Mario," Peach said, trying her best to keep up with Mario.

"I know Princess, but I'm positive I know where Emmy's parents are, I just need to figure out where _we_ are." Mario remembered back when he was with his lion, and where the lair had been from his view when he'd slipped into the hole in the ground. And then he had to figure out how far he'd traveled below the ground…

He couldn't think about it and run at the same time. They would eventually have to fight.

* * *

Luigi ran over to where Bowser lie, jumping over the magic Kammy shot at them. And then it was as if his and Emmy's spirit guardians appeared out of nowhere. The white dappled snow leopard leaped in front of Bowser, the otter on its back. Luigi smiled as the guardians ran past him, the otter jumping off the leopard at just the right moment to scratch Bowser's forearm with his claws.

Luigi and Emmy stared in astonishment, completely unaware that their guardians could fight. Then again, Peach's spirit guardian had knocked down a door. The otter jumped back onto the floor and ran up Luigi, curling around his neck.

"You gonna help me?" Luigi asked the otter, who squealed with delight.

Furious, Bowser stood back up and filled the room with his fire breath. Luigi, distracted by his otter, found himself with no time to move out of the way of the scorching heat and flame. He shielded himself with his hat and hands, then realized there was no need to.

Beside him was Emmy, one hand outstretched, placing a force field between them and the deadly fire. Emmy's snow leopard growled and paced the edge of the field. Finally Bowser stopped and Emmy released her field, the snow leopard running and latching onto Bowser's forearm. Emmy and Luigi smiled at each other, both wondering if the whole battle was going to be this easy.

Goombas and koopas behind them, however, weren't going to let that happen. "Attack!"

They couldn't run much longer, Mario knew. The hallway they were in seemed to stretch on and on, and even Mario felt his legs grow sore.

Finally the hallway ended, but in a way that made Mario grow sick. They had run onto a balcony. A growl bellowed from behind Mario, starting off slow and growing quickly to a full lion roar. Mario and Peach spun around to see that the troops behind them were now retreating, as a white horse and a great lion were driving them back.

The minions scattered as the lion and horse trampled their comrades, and Mario and Peach ran towards their spirit guardians, eventually joining in the fight. Stomping and punching their way through, the lion and horse led their people back down the hallway, and soon there were none of Bowser's minions left standing.

"Where do we go now?" Mario asked their guardians. The lion looked at the horse and then the horse and lion galloped down another hallway that led downwards, Mario and Peach following closely and quickly.

"Why did you choose to not fight Bowser?" Peach asked as they ran. "You didn't do it just to take a break, I know that. Why'd you do it?"

Mario looked at his lion, remembering his discovery from earlier. "I know where her parents are. They're in this room down by all these tunnels that lead away from a flowing river of lava. Hopefully they're leading us in the right direction, because…" Mario never got to finish that sentence, as suddenly he felt the ground shake as his face fell to the floor.

* * *

The koopas and goombas surrounded Emmy and Luigi as quickly as possible, trapping every way of escape. Bowser laughed, then walked over to them. "Hand over the power stars, Emmy, or I won't be forced to kill you."

"Luigi, grab my hand," Emmy said, and Luigi knew right away what Emmy was doing. He grabbed a hold of her hand and then harnessed his electrical energy. To Kammy and Bowser's surprise, a green and golden electrical sphere flew out from around the two, shoving every koopa and goomba out of the way. Kammy shielded herself with her own magic, then blocked the attack for Bowser, leaving him unscathed.

With all the koopas and goombas knocked out, Emmy and Luigi smiled at each other, but Bowser took this time to attack. With a swift movement of his giant clawed hand, he hit Emmy, sending her flying across the room, where she collided with the wall with a sickening thud.

Shocked, Luigi faced Bowser and slowly backed towards Emmy. Bowser laughed at him. "Give up, plumber…"

And it was just then that Luigi and everyone else in the room experienced the same earthquake Mario and Peach had felt. Luigi, Bowser and everyone else in the room fell to the floor.

"Kammy!" Bowser yelled. "What's happening?!"

Luigi took this opportunity to shove his way past knocked out minions and crawl over towards Emmy. He shook her. "Emmy? Emmy? Can you hear me?" He sat next to her.

She wouldn't wake up.


	27. The Fall of the Mario Bros

A/N: And... there goes my reputation as a regular updater. Wave! I bet you're wondering why this chapter is called what it is... Read to find out!

On a completely different note, Mario Kart Wii came out in the US today. I can't get it until late May, but has anyone played it yet? I'm obessesed with the Mario Kart series. The suspense will kill me!

Enjoy, read, and review!

* * *

CHAPTER 27: The Fall of the Mario Bros.

Mario opened his eyes slowly to see Peach's face. "Peach?" he asked. "Are you carrying me?"

"No, we're riding my horse. She and the lion are taking us somewhere," Peach said. "I'm glad you're finally awake, I was stating to get worried."

Mario sat up and straddled the horse, as it ran down a narrow hallway. They came to a stop in front of four spike-armored koopas, and Mario and Peach jumped off the horse to take them on. It wasn't necessary, however, as they all toppled onto one another as another rumble shook the earth.

Taking advantage of their vulnerability, the lion swiped a massive paw at them, then looked back at Mario, who understood what the lion meant.

Grabbing Peach's hand, he ran off down the tunnel. "I know where they are, we need to find them," Mario said. With every rumble he feared the lava river would overflow.

* * *

"Emmy?" Luigi asked again, shaking her one more time.

"Give it up, plumber," Bowser growled from behind him. Luigi turned around stood between Bowser and Emmy. "Soon you'll both be dead, so it won't really matter."

"I won't," Luigi said, and let electricity run through his fingers. The ground shook again, and Luigi steadied himself against the wall to keep himself standing. Bowser, however, fell over on his side and failed to get himself upright.

* * *

Mario ran down the corridor, Peach and spirit guardians close behind. "Mario! What were you saying before you got knocked out? You said something about a lava river."

"The earth keeps shaking," Mario explained. "There's a river of lava near Emmy's parents, and if it overflows, they won't be able to get out. We need to hurry!"

They eventually reached a large room with many doors leading out of it. A koopa troop in the room turned around and faced the four, but cringed some when they saw the lion and the horse.

The lion and the horse charged at them, giving Mario and Peach a window of opportunity to go and search through one of the doors. The first three were empty, and the fourth had the people they'd been looking for since they'd been told the truth. Bursting through the dungeon doors, Mario and Peach stood face to face with Emmy's parents, and the roaring river of lava that poured out behind them.

Mario stood in horror at the yellow and orange burning river that drew closer with each second. "Are you Emmy's parents?" Peach asked them. "We need to get you out of here as soon as possible."

They nodded and went over to where Mario and Peach stood, getting away from the flowing lava. "Who sent you?" the man asked.

"Emmy did," Peach said, as all four ran out of the room as quickly as possible to see the koopas fleeing and their spirit guardians gone. "She's waiting for you upstairs."

The ground shook more violently than before, sending all four to the ground, and cracking open the walls. Looking up from the floor, they saw that through the cracks in the walls, lava was beginning to seep out.

Mario jumped to his feet, pulling the others up with him. "We need to get out of here!" he yelled, though the shaking ground made it hard to run, let alone stand up straight. They all helped each other up, feeling the need for urgency as they ran up the tunnels to get out of the dungeons.

Behind them the lava river grew faster and more furious, and the four struggled to stay ahead. From up ahead, koopas ran at them, stopping them from leaving. Mario and Peach rushed into the battle, Emmy's parents too tired and neglected to fight.

A koopa latched onto Mario's arm and he yowled in pain, fighting off the turtle. "Go ahead!" Mario yelled to Emmy's parents, blocking off some of the koopas to let them go by.

"We just need Mario!" one koopa yelled above the rest. "Get Mario!" They ran at the red-clad plumber, leaving Peach and the others alone.

"Go without me!" Mario yelled at the three as he fought off the many koopas. Peach hesitated, and Mario yelled again, "I'll be fine, just go!"

Peach grabbed onto Emmy's parents and ran with them out of the dungeons. The lava was close now, and Mario was finding it hard to keep up with so many koopas in such a small space.

Mario felt his legs collapse beneath him, and the koopas began to run away from the approaching lava. "Retreat!"

Mario's eyelids felt heavy, and he struggled to regain his footing. He looked behind to see the lava was less than five feet away. There was no way to escape. Before his world went dark, Mario looked into the eyes of a kind lion that stared back at him.

* * *

Luigi wasn't sure he could stand much longer. He'd taken Kamek and Kammy out when they weren't suspecting with his thunderhand, and now all that remained was Bowser. But Emmy was still out cold.

The ground let out a violent rumble, and Luigi lost his footing, falling flat on his nose next to Emmy. He heard the floor crack beneath him and the walls break open. The lair was falling apart.

Bowser had managed to stand, however, and was slowly making his way towards Luigi. "Blame her for this!" he yelled at him. "Those machines were holding in the lava! And now it's all falling apart! I want my power stars back… And I want _her _DEAD!"

Luigi, leaving out all time for words, fired his electricity at the Koopa King, who fell to the ground, but recovered quickly and dashed towards them.

There was no time to stop Bowser. Luigi shoved Emmy out of the way but failed to get himself to safety as Bowser crashed into Luigi and the wall. Emmy's eyes opened just shortly after, only to see Bowser towering over her and Luigi slumped against the wall like a broken doll.

"You're next," Bowser muttered as he brought his hand down upon her. Emmy used all the energy she had to block the blow, putting a weak force field around her. But it had holes in it, and Bowser managed to find his way through the field and grab her.

She didn't fight back as he carried her over to the center of the room. Bowser paused, holding Emmy in his hand, realizing there was nothing much he could do, since his minions and Kammy and Kamek had been taken out. He set her down and laughed at her. "What are you going to do now?" Bowser asked her.

The castle gave another violent shake, and Bowser frowned as a small, hopeful smile spread across Emmy's face.

* * *

A/N: Gahh! Cliffhanger! I'll try and get up the next chapter ASAP.


	28. Reunion

A/N: ...Why can't summer hurry up? Anyways, here's another chapter (I'm trying to make them longer).

Enjoy, read, and review!

* * *

CHAPTER 28: Reunion

Emmy's parents and Peach gasped in shock as they came upon the sight in the throne room. Bowser sat staring at Emmy, who looked exhausted and was lying on the ground. Luigi was slumped in the corner, and Peach ran over to him.

"Emmy?" Emmy's father asked, and Bowser stood up and roared. His troops were gone, his loyal servants knocked out, and all that remained was his dignity. "Fight me, Mario, and then you all can leave!" Bowser yelled. Even though the koopa king was sure the outcome would be the same as every time, he still wanted to fight Mario.

But the red plumber did not appear. Emmy sat up and looked around with weary eyes. And then she saw them; was it them? It had been too long to really know what they looked like anymore. "Mom?" she asked, her voice cracking. "Dad?"

"Emmy!" they cried out, running towards their daughter in joyous reunion. But it wasn't meant to be so, as the castle shook and Bowser stopped them before they got there.

Emmy's mother stood up to Bowser. "You let us see our daughter!"

Bowser turned his attention to Peach, who was sitting beside Luigi and his worried and panicked otter. "Where is Mario?"

Peach hesitated. "We lost him a ways back. I don't know where he is."

Bowser's eyes widened. "Mario is dead? Mario is dead!"

Everyone's heart sank in the room, except for Luigi, whose heart might not have been able to handle those words.

* * *

Mario's mind drifted, bringing up memories of him and his brother; when they were little, living in Brooklyn and then discovering the Mushroom Kingdom. He witnessed the first time he thought he beat Bowser, only to rescue a mushroom looking creature that exclaimed, 'Sorry Mario, but our Princess is in another castle!' And then the first time he ever laid eyes on the princess. Everything had been worth it…

A sharp pain woke him up and he sat up where he was to see the lion staring him in the face. Mario grumbled and turned over, somewhat delirious and confused about where he was. Looking around, the elder Mario brother found himself in a dark damp hallway, with his lion sitting beside him.

_Come_, the lion called to him, and walked off. Following his lion, Mario could hear some of the things that were being yelled ahead, and he ran towards them, his lion matching his speed. Mario found himself standing at the entrance to the throne room. Bowser was laughing at something he'd said and everyone in the room looked rather down.

Luigi was knocked out at the southern wall and Mario ran over to Peach and his brother. "Luigi! Is he okay?" he yelled.

Bowser spun around and stared at Mario. "Pesky plumber! Why don't you die!?"

"Sorry Bowser, but it's going to take a lot more to kill me than lava," Mario responded. Looking behind the Koopa King, Mario saw Emmy's parents rush towards their daughter. Despite the fact that they hadn't seen each other in over a decade, they embraced and held each other like a family, and Mario was reminded of his own father…

Bowser's massive hand swept Mario off his feet, and Mario, knowing better, latched onto the massive koopa's hands, then jumped off when it was safe. Bowser growled in frustration, and blew fire at Luigi and the princess. But there was no time for either of them to escape.

Peach used her umbrella and shielded the attack, and Mario leapt at Bowser, landing just as the castle shook again, this time more violent. Mario landed harshly upon the ground, and everyone in the room seemed to suffer as well, Bowser falling straight on his back.

"We have to get out of here!" Mario heard someone yell, but he wasn't sure just who it was. He reacted, leaving the defeated Bowser on the ground and running towards his brother, holding him in his arms.

_The lair's collapsing_, he realized with a sudden fear. "We need to leave now," Mario said. Emmy, who'd been caught up in her own world, toyed with the idea she'd had in her mind since the beginning. She still wanted Bowser sealed away in the center of the universe. But she had no idea how to do it; there was no time and she'd only heard of Lotas sealing people away, never really learning how they did it.

Suddenly she was being yanked away by her father towards the door where Mario and Peach were running to. Their spirit guardians waited for them, except for Luigi's, who was still curled around the knocked out plumber's neck.

Bowser, had returned to his feet again, however, and was now charging after them through the hallway. All six ran on, Luigi slowly regaining consciousness.

And then it all happened so fast. The ceiling in front them collapsed, sending dirt and debris flying everywhere. Their way was blocked, and the turned around to see Bowser running away, until the ceiling of the whole hallway fell.

"Duck!" Emmy yelled, and she tried her best to put up a force field around them as the rocks fell on their heads.

"What's happening?" Luigi asked as he began to wake. Mario hugged his brother happily. "Weegie, you're awake!" The otter squealed in delight and curled even more around Luigi's neck.

Luigi smiled when he saw his brother, and then his jaw dropped as he looked up. Above him were millions of giant rocks suspended in the air. Luigi covered his head.

"What do we do?" Peach asked. Emmy held out a hand.

"Luigi, I need you to help me throw these rocks away from us so we can get out." Luigi grabbed onto Emmy's hand and then together they used their power to shove the bricks back. The rocks that were once brown now turned to a dark green color and then were shoved up and outwards, but to everyone's dismay, they fell right back into place.

"It didn't work," Luigi said. "Mario, maybe your power can help."

"Alright, then," Emmy said. "Let's try that." Emmy and Mario joined hands and there was a bright burst of light, followed by a series of fiery explosions up above them. The rocks turned to smaller and smaller pieces until finally it was just dust in the air.

"Whoa," Emmy said, turning to Mario. "You and I should try that more often."

"What about Bowser?" Peach asked. Bowser's tail stuck out from the rumble, along with one of his legs.

Emmy frowned. "He got what he deserved," she scoffed. "Let's just leave him."

Mario nodded. "He bounces back pretty quickly." One of the rocks moved and a grumble came from underneath. Bowser was still alive.

"No!" Luigi cried out, grabbing at his neck. "Don't go!" The otter around his neck was waving as it slowly disappeared. Emmy's snow leopard was gone soon after that along with Peach's horse the only one that remained was Mario's lion.

"Luigi, are you okay?" Peach asked. Luigi was seemingly mourning over his otter.

"I really liked my otter is all," Luigi said. "Hey, why do you still get your lion?" Luigi pointed to the lion was sitting calmly next to Mario, who shrugged in return.

_I am not finished with you yet_, the lion said to Mario, then leaped over the rubble and out of sight. The rest of the group followed, climbing down the rubble and following the same path as the lion.

Finally they were far enough away to stop and rest, and Emmy was finally able to talk to her parents. She embraced each one with tears in her eyes and they sat far away from the others as they talked.

The lion nudged Mario, and Mario tore his eyes away from the Lota and her parents. _Do you see now?_ Mario shook his head. _Your own father loves you. This is your journey, Mario. This is your self-discovery._

And without even an answer as to what he meant, the lion disappeared. Mario sifted through his mind, trying to decipher what the lion's words could mean. He looked back over at Emmy and her family, and he realized.

He'd been denying his father's existence. Knowing he did exist changed his life, and that was something Mario didn't feel he could accept just yet. But he would try.

"Mario," Luigi said, placing a hand on his brother's shoulder. "Are you okay?"

Mario nodded. "Just tired."

"I think we're all tired," Peach said, looking at a small device that she'd taken from her pocket. Emmy walked over with her parents and introduced them. "Guys, these are my parents Jena and Lanny. Mom, Dad, this is Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach of the Mushroom Kingdom. Peach, what is that?" Emmy pointed at the device Peach was examining.

"Oh, I don't know. I found it in the castle. You want to look at it?" Emmy nodded, and then took the device.

After looking it over, her eyes widened in disbelief. "Peach, this is communications device! The number of shuttle is on here; I wonder if I can contact it. When did you find this?"

"Remember, it was when my horse charged out of the room? She made me take it with me."

"So we might be able to avoid the mountains?" Luigi asked happily. "I really don't want to turn into Mr. L again."

"If they answer," Emmy said. "My shuttle is in the hands of the Cohas, remember." After turning the device on, she typed in the code of her shuttle and waited as it rang.

"Hello?" a deep voice sounded, and Emmy found herself with nothing to say. "Uh…" she said, until Luigi took it from her.

"Hello!" he said. "It's me, Luigi, I, uh… We're in a land north of Seria, and were wondering if you could come pick us up." Emmy rolled her eyes and there was a long pause from the people on the other side.

"What? Pick you up? Who's Luigi?" Emmy took back the device.

"Hi, this is Emmy. I know you all think I stole your shuttle and all, but we're really in a bad situation up here, and we'd love it if someone could come rescue us."

There was a long pause on the other end. "…You mean, you haven't heard? Hold on."

"Emmy is this really you?" another voice asked awhile later.

"Lucas?" Emmy asked in disbelief. "Yeah, its me, what are you doing on Coha territory?"

"Uh…. Long story; I'll tell it to you when I get there, okay? And you're where?"

"North of Seria, and north of the mountains. Please hurry."

"No problem, just hold on tight."

"Lucas…" There was a clicking noise as Lucas sounded off.

"Lucas?" Jena asked. "That kid you always used to fight with?"

Emmy nodded and laughed. "Yeah, we're good friends now. He's leading a rebellion against Chief Sandro, or already has… I've lost count of the days."

Mario looked over at his brother and saw that he was sleeping peacefully. "I think we should go back to our camp. Luigi's already out."

They made their way back to their tent, Luigi nearly falling back asleep on the way there, only to find Bowser waiting in his clown car.

"Bowser!" Luigi yelled, waking back up. "Go back to the dark lands! You don't belong here anymore."

Bowser hung his head. "I know. But listen plumbers! And you, Peach and Emmy, I'll be back! And this time, no one is getting away." And with his final statement he flew high up into the air, and into the snow-covered mountains.

* * *

A/N: Yay! Only three or so more chapters to go! I've been wondering whether or not to change the title of the story... I was thinking something along the lines of 'Destiny' or something, with Mario and Luigi's father and all... but I'm not really sure. Besides, the title of the story is pretty long...


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